Breaking the Rules
by 10000 Fists
Summary: Naruto uses a jutsu from the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, and gets a lot more than he bargained for! Catapulted to the Marvel Movie-Verse, can Naruto find his way back, or even survive this strange new world? Rated M for Gratuitous Violence, and eventual sensual content. Eventual Sarcastic!Naruto, Not-Dumb!Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (it is owned by Masashi Kishimoto), Marvel (IT is owned by Stan Lee… or Disney… someone who isn't me anyway), or Spawn (he's owned by Image Comics). So please don't sue me… Please?

"Hi."- Person Talking

"_Hi"_- Person Talking in foreign language

'I should think of something more original'- Person Thinking

"**I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL"**- Demon or greater being speaking

'**I SHALL HAVE IT WITH A LEMONY SAUCE'**- Demon or greater being thinking

_/Transformation Technique/_- Techniques (Obviously)

:Line Break:- Line breaks (Again, obvious)

Laws…

They can be described as things made from fact, rules that cannot be ignored in any scenario. They can also be necessary part of any society, often invariably extending from the moral code that dominates that society. Or they can be the laws of wisdom passed down to children from their elders.

An example of the first would be the force of gravity exerted on an object is equivalent to the gravitational constant multiplied by the multiplied mass of both objects involved in this scenario over the square of the distance between the centers of mass of both objects.

An example of the second is the law forbidding murder in most modern or self-described civilized societies.

For the third, the best example is the common lesson learned by children the world over. Don't try to touch fire.

For breaking each of these laws different situations arise as the consequences differ as much as the definitions.

Breaking the first law results in a changing of that law to fit or incorporate the scenario that violated it.

Punishment is the reward for breaking the second example of law, involving paying a wergild, spending from 20 years to the rest of your life in jail, or even being put to death based on the society and time period where one finds oneself.

The punishment for violating the third law is wisdom. The wisdom that can only come from pain and hard learned lessons. As an author and great man once said, "The burned hand teaches best". With this type of law, children often learn very quickly to obey these rules of wisdom, as they only invite their own pain and suffering.

Well… most children do.

There is also the type to stick their hand in the fire again just to prove that they weren't afraid of the fire, and they would show it.

The troublesome type.

In a reality much different from our own, one such troublesome individual is about to learn why not to use a technique that some of the most powerful men in existence, men who had made a habit of regularly mucking with the laws of space and time, thought deserved to be labeled forbidden, to any and all.

:Line Break:

In a clearing outside of Konohagakure no Sato, there stood three men. Well, two men sat, the man named Iruka Umino dying of blood loss, and the other man, named Mizuki, recovering from a heavy blow dealt by the third man. One man, or really child, stood between the two, holding a scroll declared forbidden to read. A particularly troublesome child, named Naruto Uzumaki. This child, in fact, will become the protagonist of our story.

"You surprised me there freak." Begrudgingly said the silver haired man, picking himself up off the ground

"If you ever lay a hand on Iruka-sensei again," ground out a short, blond child in a blindingly orange suit. "I'll kill you!"

"SHUT UP!" I can take care of a kid like you in one blow!" Riposted the aforementioned silver haired fellow, completely ignoring the fact that he had nearly 12 years on the kid in question, and that such a feat shouldn't really merit special accreditation.

"You'll never get the chance, Mizuki-teme!" The blond haired child ground back, before contorting his hands into an unusual sign.

Further enraged by this continued show of defiance, the now identified Mizuki screamed back at the blond protagonist. "Show me what you can do, Demon Fox!"

It is at this point in our tale that our blonde haired hero, goes from cautiously feeling the air around the fire, to leaping into it headfirst.

_/Space Time Technique: Great Abyss/_

A great pressure was felt as wind whipped through the small clearing where the three men were standing.

Light flashed and thunder cracked as the pressure grew greater. A mighty vortex opened directly above Naruto, who had his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to stave off the pressure he was feeling.

To the child it seemed as if the whole night sky started to glow a brilliant white, which he would've enjoyed had he not had blood coming out of his ears.

On the cusp of not being able to take any-more pain Naruto let out a final scream. In that moment, the vortex above Naruto descended, swallowing him whole.

Approximately a minute and a half later, nine members of the Hokage's personal ANBU taskforce arrived on the scene to discover two unconscious men on either side of a perfectly formed semi spherical hole in the ground, with a small pile of dust sitting directly on the edge of the circle.

The team leader shook his head in disbelief.

'I do NOT want to explain this to Hokage-sama.'

:Line Break:

The first thing that Naruto could hear was the sound of crickets chirping.

Rubbing his eyes in a decidedly childlike fashion, Naruto opened his eyes and began to look around. Staring at the odd grass, the strange trees, and the even stranger leaves, only one thought came to his mind.

"Where the heck am I?"

Pushing off the ground, Naruto began to have a gander around, trying to see if there were any remnants of either Mizuki-teme or Iruka-sensei.

After ten minutes or so of searching his immediate vicinity and calling out to anyone that can hear him, Naruto gave up on this fruitless exercise. Picking a direction, Naruto began his barefooted run towards what he hoped was civilization.

'Wait,' Thought Naruto slowly. 'Barefooted?'

Glancing down at his feet, Naruto gave a not quite so manly shriek before tripping over his bare feet, sending his completely nude body tumbling head over heels.

"W-W-WHAT THE HELL?" Sputtered the very confused twelve-year old, "Where did my clothes go?!"

Racing back to the area where he was before, Naruto saw no trace of his beloved orange one piece. Just that same large pile of ash where he had been… laying… down…

"Noooo…" Moaned Naruto as he realized the fate of his orange suit, "It's not fair… he was so young..."

Quickly stopping himself before he started bellowing at the cruelty of the world, he made a few hand signs.

_/Transformation Technique/_

A small poof of smoke revealed an orange clad Naruto.

'Now I don't have to be worried when I run into people.' Thought Naruto, relieved that at least one thing seemed to be going right.

'Now I have to find someone, and find out where I am.'

Resuming his heading from earlier, Naruto was rather surprised when after only three minutes of tree jumping to hear the sounds of civilization. In fact, there were more than noises, there was a great host of noise and light coming from beyond the edge of the wood.

Hopping out of his tree, Naruto went to inspect the great cacophony steeling himself for the cold words of an ANBU party, or the disapproving scowl of Sarutobi-jiji. He was even prepared for the death threats that he often received from drunken men in the village, and shinobi like Mizuki-teme. But never in a million years would he have been ready for what awaited him.

There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people in strange dress, with pasty complexions racing back and forth on either side of what seemed to be a street. They were either talking or yelling or eating or just minding their own business and doing their best not to notice anyone around them. But the people, even the insane number of them, weren't the most astonishing part.

On either side of the street there were buildings, MASSIVE buildings. Each of which would have dwarfed the Hokage tower by themselves, and they were all clustered around him now. Some of these buildings even had great flashing signs advertising things in some indecipherable foreign language. Yet even those were no the most astonishing thing Naruto saw.

His eyes were on the horseless carriages that were moving up and down the street at a pace he would be hard-pressed to match.

On top off all of this was the constant sound of people talking, and laughing and shouting, the sound of some odd music coming from multiple sources, and weird honking sounds coming from the horseless carriages.

Standing on what he would learn was called a sidewalk, Naruto stood feeling guilty for not being at Iruka's side, feeling homesick in this strange and foreign land, feeling inadequate surrounded by the imposing majesty of these mighty buildings, most of all though, Naruto felt hopelessly confused at this most radical development. As best he could, Naruto summarized all of his feelings at that moment in a single statement

"What the hell?"

:Line Break:

Authors Note:

Very small first chapter, but believe me, I have a lot in store for you. I am sorry for all of the fans of Fractured Fate, the next chapter is almost ready, but the muse decided this one was the next chapter to be done. Should have more for y'all soon. For all of the fans of Chooser of the Slain's stories, I would like to say that while our stories may start similar it is only the beginning's that are similar, the rest of it is hardly similar, as our stories are set in different universes (universii?), realities anyway. He has chosen to go with a Naruto/Ultimate Marvel cross, whereas I have chosen a Naruto/MOVIE Marvel cross. So it is the same Naruto coming over, the same method of transportation (not even really, but that comes up much later), but completely different places where he ends up. However, because my opening resembles his so much, I have PM'ed him, in hopes of getting his full blessing on this fic. But as he hasn't updated anything in nearly two years, I see this as a dubious prospect.

Also please review, and I need a Beta for this story.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (it is owned by Masashi Kishimoto), or Marvel (IT is owned by Stan Lee… or Disney… someone who isn't me anyway). So please don't sue me… Please?

"Behold. I am smiling."- Person Talking

"_You ain't from round these parts, is ya?"_- Person Talking in foreign language

'I feel the need.'- Person Thinking

[Bang]- Specific noises

"**DOES ANYONE HAVE A BREATH MINT?"**- Demon or greater being speaking

'**I ENJOY THE TASTE OF DUMPLINGS'**- Demon or greater being thinking

_/Transgender Transformation Technique/_- Techniques

:Line Break:- Line breaks

Naruto was really beginning to hate this new place.

Ever since he found himself here, without Iruka-sensei, or Jiji or _clothes_ or RAMEN, ('I mean, seriously, what kind of kami-less place doesn't have ramen?' He thought to himself), things just kept going downhill.

First, he had to keep transforming into a clothed version of himself, because it seemed that _everyone_ in this stupid city had to bump into him when he wasn't walking in the street, and cause his technique to fail. Which left him bare ass naked in the middle of a large crowd of people, and when he stopped to change back, people started screaming and running away. Then came the running from the really slow, blue-uniformed shinobi, which was easy to do, sure, but it was still a pain for someone just bumping into him.

Next, when he tried to buy actual clothes, so that would stop happening, they wouldn't accept his money! Ryo were the notes used for currency throughout all of the Elemental Nations, why weren't they accepting it here?

'Isn't it just my luck,' Naruto thought to himself. 'To go someplace away from Konoha, where no-one should know me at all, and they still don't take my money. They still all give me those cold looks or otherwise ignore me. And they when they finally DO look at me with something other than that blank coldness, it's because they're shouting at me in that stupid made-up language.'

Then, because they weren't allowing him to buy the clothes normally, and because he Needed the clothes, he decided to do the less honorable thing and steal them.

'A little mark on my conscience is better than walking around virtually naked all the time.' At least, those were his rationalizations.

Going into a clothing store and picking up a pair of black t-shirt and sandals, and a pair of blue shorts, Naruto was making his way towards the door, when he was stopped by a cashier placing his hand upon Naruto's shoulder. Naturally, Naruto opened up with his signature anti-pervert move to distract and knock out the rotund, male, uniformed ninja at the door, and the cashier. It didn't work quite as planned though…

Both men stumbled back originally, so Naruto held it, thinking that it was working. To his great surprise, however, Naruto was grabbed roughly enough to disperse his transformation and his semi-existent clothing. Confusion invaded Naruto's mind, wondering exactly what was wrong with his _/Sexy Technique/_. So confused was he, that he stopped thinking about his escaped with stolen goods, his own nakedness, and the ninja in blue about to grab him.

The first thing that brought his attention back to the moment was the cashier behind him screaming in his gobbledygook language.

"_Oh My God! It's one of those FREAKS!"_

'At least I got SOME reaction out of it, even if no one was knocked out.' Thought Naruto before being tackled to the ground.

'_Stay still, you little shit!'_ spat the nin atop him, who was curiously lighter than he seemed.

Wrestling around with the older man, Naruto turned around to face him, planted his legs in the man's chest, and Kicked.

For a moment, the older ninja flew for over 6 feet before crashing into a group of what Naruto could only assume were combat dummies.

Marveling at his result for a second, Naruto quickly grabbed the clothes and ran out the door. Hearing a shout of that same mumbo-jumbo, _"Stop that Kid!"_ from behind him, he could see a couple of ninja's ahead of him on the side of the road moving to intercept him. Ducking into an alleyway, Naruto transformed into one of the men he saw there, tossing the clothes underneath him before sitting down.

The two blue-clad ninja came rushing in a few seconds later, before running down the end of the alleyway, conveniently going right past Naruto in his hiding place. Smirking to himself, Naruto grabbed the clothes and began backing out of the alley, thinking to himself 'that's right, Konoha's number one prankster always-' before bumping into something behind him, dispelling his transformation technique with a pop and a cloud of smoke.

Turning around to see what he had bumped into, it turned out to be the same heavy-set nin that he had run into not thirty seconds ago. Cursing his forgetfulness, Naruto dodged under the man's slow swing, rolling forward and back into the crowded street.

Hearing more shouting behind him, Naruto really started running, abandoning all stealth in a desperate bid to stay ahead of his pursuers. Flashing past startled passerby, Naruto quickly transformed into his clothed self again, not wanting to die from embarrassment as his 'privates' were on display for everyone to see.

On he went for another five minutes, pausing every so often to either glance back at his pursuers, or to pass between the horseless carriages that crowded the streets. After those five minutes had passed, Naruto looked back, searching for any sign of the ANBU, and smiled when he found none. 'Wow,' Naruto thought, ducking into another alley, 'The ANBU here are _really_ slow!'

Taking a moment, Naruto pulled on his ill-gotten goods, and reveled in the absence of the fear of his nakedness being revealed. Moving around a little in his new duds, Naruto had a thought that would severely change the ways he spent his time in this new place.

'I can do this.' He thought to himself, still marveling at the new fabrics. 'I can take what I need to survive.' Suffering an immediate guilt attack for even having that kind of thought, Naruto attempted to justify his reasoning.

'They don't take my money here, whenever I do ninja skills they just run and grab those guys in blue, and I can't even figure out WHY they run me out because they are all babbling NONSENSE!'

Even with this logic however, Naruto still felt ashamed of himself, for doing something so unclean as to steal, even if it was necessary. 'What would Jiji think of me stealing from helpless civilians?', Naruto thought, scolding himslef.

Still, his logic would come back to him, the next time he went without food.

:Line Break:

It had been two months since Naruto had arrived in this strange new world. It has only been three weeks since Naruto had a debate with himself regarding the morals of theft and desperation. It has been three days since Naruto has eaten. He stared at strange restaurant marked only with a large, arching yellow character of some sort. Therein sat many people feasting upon weird… circle like foods, kind of like a large, hand held dumpling, but a bit flatter. They weren't rice balls, he could see that, but they were something edible, and from the looks that people had on their faces when mid consumption, they were tasty as well.

To a starved Naruto, that was all the incentive he needed to do something otherwise looked down upon.

To get that food, he needed the special Ryo that they carried in his new world.

And to get those notes, he was going to have to steal again.

In the weeks that he had been here, Naruto had learned of many strange things. Things like how the ninja's in this world were really slow, and weak. Like how people here were nearly completely immune to his Sexy Technique. He even learned that nearly nobody wore orange in this new world. But one of the strangest things was how these people kept their money in large metal boxes scattered around the village.

He saw people sometimes going up to these boxes, poking the window on the front a few times, and then taking their special Ryo away. Drawing the conclusion that they kept their money in their, like he used to keep money stuffed in his mattress, Naruto made a plan of attack for getting to the hidden goods inside.

Heng'ing into the form of a thin, middle aged, blond man, Naruto waited across the street from one such box until there was no one in sight. Ambling over to the box carefully, Naruto took a sturdy piece of metal, that he had appropriated during his stay in a large rubbish bin one night, and began to stab at the lock located on the front of the box.

Hey, he's never exactly been a genius, nor does he have any idea how ATM's actually work, so give him a bit of a break on this one.

Breaking the plastic around the lock, Naruto pried the door off of the bottom of the ATM… to be faced with a series of boxes each locked within a steel matrix or frame.

"Damnit…" Naruto hissed as he tried to force the next lock to open. Minutes ticked by as he wrenched and twisted the lock mercilessly. More minutes still as Naruto began hearing sirens in the distance.

Pop

CLANG

The lock finally came loose, and Naruto let off a small victory cheer before taking out one of the four containers he saw.

Popping the lid open, he began pulling out an abundance of sticky, blue colored money.

'Wait…' Naruto thought suspiciously. 'Isn't this money supposed to be green?'

Searching through the rest of the stack, he found only two handfuls of bills not dyed a bright blue color.

'Why are the rest of these Blue? They can't be worthless or else people wouldn't bother hiding it in the box in the first place, so what does it mean?'

Shaking his head, Naruto began separating all of the bills, putting the blue notes in the pocket of a jacket he had managed to procure earlier in the week, and the greenish bills he stuffed in his pants. Setting up this pattern Naruto quickly proceeded to go through the other 'bins' of notes. After going through the next two, and finding a thankfully very diverse number of notes, Naruto was about to go start on the third when a voice spoke up behind him.

"_Freeze! This is the NYPD! Put your hands on your head and turn around slowly!"_

'Well at least they didn't show up till I was done.' Naruto thought as he turned to face his blue uniformed opponents.

Getting a good look at the two men about thirty feet away from him on either side of one of those horseless carriages, Naruto took a second to analyze the situation.

'Ok, so I have the money I need in my pants in jacket, these two wannabe ANBU in front of me. There is an open street to my right, and another street running perpendicular to this on my left. There are several alleyways all about, but the ones I can see look pretty cramped. Best options are the streets, but since I have no idea where the one on the left goes, my only option is the street on my right.'

"_I said Put Your Hands on Your Head!"_ the Anbu-wannabe screamed out tersely.

'This was always the best part of pranks' Naruto thought before yelling out. "CATCH ME IF YA CAN!" and taking off down the street.

One of the nin started booking it after him while the other went back to the car and radioed it in.

"_This is car Lincoln 830 in pursuit of suspect in grand larceny. The suspect is a middle aged blond male and is proceeding northwest along east 22__n d__, passing Madison Green!"_

Naruto could almost feel himself laughing as his chest bubbled in excitement, his heart quickening. Racing down the street, and ignoring whatever the men behind him were shouting, Naruto searched for an alley where he could lose his pursuers, just like he used to do after a prank in Konoha. 'It took me years to memorize all the streets.'

Not spying anything useful, he leaped over the fence of a small park, running for the alley on the other side with the men in pursuit lagging, and shouting in the distance.

"_Shit, he's fast! He's cutting across to 23__rd__ St! Requesting backup."_

Naruto kept running through that alley, straight through to the street on the other side, and through to the alley on the other side, all the while a loud wailing sound was coming from behind him.

'A little more distance between us and I'll be home-free.' Naruto thought, leaping over a trash bin. Looking back to see how far away the ninja were, something slammed into his legs as he ran into the street. Exploding into smoke, and sent sprawling, Naruto's hands quickly flew through handseals.

_/Transform/_

"_He's a fucking mutie!"_ Shouted one of the nin, before firing the crossbow device with a loud [bang].

The smoke gave Naruto cover to move, as he dove into yet another alley way running for the next street.

"_He's heading to 25__th__! Cut him off! Force him towards the coast, we can corner him there!"_

Diving over a large, rancid, green box, Naruto ran out of the alley in time to see two ninja carriages stopping in front of the alley opposite him and another one coming down the street from his left, all of them whining loudly. Jerking right, Naruto was barely missed by the volley of 'bolts' from the nins crossbows, firing with loud [bang]'s.

The apparently tiny bolts whistled as they sailed past Naruto, who was making his way with haste away from the pursuing carriages. Coming across another, larger street, with fast moving carriages going across it, Naruto waited for a moment, the sounds of the carriages and ninja on foot drawing nearer. Concentrating on the carriage traffic, he started timing his jump.

"_GET ON THE GROUND! DOWN ON THE GROUND OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"_

Ignoring him, Naruto concentrated on the carriage he was about to jump on top of.

"_DID YOU HEAR ME, YOU FUCKING MUTIE? I said GET DOWN!"_

'3…2…1… NOW' Naruto shouted mentally and leaped.

The large carriage, at least 20 feet long, shook as Naruto landed on top off it. Looking back at the ninja, Naruto couldn't help but give a sarcastic salute, the prankster in him making itself known. It was at that moment, however, that the box shaped carriage he was on top of started slowing down, and stopped at a conjunction of two streets.

"What are you doing, the street is wide open!" Naruto yelled at the carriage, stomping a little bit as he did so. As soon as he did, there were a stream of shouts from inside the carriage as an overweight civilian stumbled out, staring up at Naruto, and started shaking his fist and shouting.

The whining nin-carriages were beginning to catch up again, and his carriages wasn't going anywhere. Jumping off of his vehicle, Naruto ran across the intersection. He heard weird honking noises, from his right though, so he looked up. Barreling down on him was yet another carriage, leaping up, Naruto got his legs caught on the top of the speeding vehicle, and was sent sprawling on the ground behind it, his jutsu dispelling, covering him in a cloud of smoke.. Taking a second to catch his breath and make sure nothing was broken, Naruto used his jutsu again, took up a runners stance, and sped after the car that had hit him, moving towards the larger buildings, and parks that surrounded them.

Hearing another car(riage) approaching him from behind, Naruto leaped up again, this time successfully landing upon the roof of a mid-sized vehicle. His soft landing garnered no notice from the driver as they quickly left the ninja's behind them. Waiting a beat or two, Naruto leaped onto the fence of a park located between two tall buildings, before leaping into the trees for cover.

Naruto continued leaping through the trees until he was sure no one was around or even in the park. Then he leapt down from the tree onto a park bench. Getting out the bills that weren't covered in blue, Naruto gave a quick count of the money there, making sure that the trip was worth it after all.

After five minutes of sorting, counting, and recounting, then recounting again to make sure his figures were right, Naruto had the final number.

'I only got 4,000 stinking ryo for that whole trip! I'll be out of money in a week or two, tops! 4,000 ryo was only enough for food for that long back home, and I have no reason to believe differently for here.' Naruto thought, cursing his unsuccessful theft. Shaking his head Naruto started to look on the positive side.

'Ok, but now I have enough for food, and maybe some other stuff for a couple of weeks if I go light on a couple of meals. Yeah, I can get some blankets, and some better clothes, and then I can get some real food, like a giant box of Ramen! Those things are cheap, so I can stretch my money.'

So drawn into his world of imaginary expenditures was he, Naruto failed to notice the presence sneaking up on him.

"_I'm sorry, am I interrupting your post-crime break?"_ said the voice from behind Naruto.

"RRRggghh" Naruto shouted, jumping out of his seat and whirling around to face the oddest sight he had seen all day. There, crouched on the bench where he had just been sitting, was a man, dressed in very tight red and blue spandex, with big white eyes on the head, making him look like an insect.

"Whaaat the fuck?" Naruto exclaimed, not believing his eyes.

"_Nooooo, it's 'Spiderman'. It's really easy to say. Spi-Der-Man. See? Simple. Now you try!"_

Ignoring whatever it was that the clearly insane man had just said, Naruto instead focused on the really pertinent question. "Why are you wearing Spandex?"

The man in the mask seemed a little miffed by this though, as he started talking with exaggerated hand motions, and in an obviously sarcastic tone. _"You're messing with me, right? The middle aged, blond hair, blue eyed Obviously American thief, and general criminal lowlife, doesn't speak English? I don't hold much respect… OK, ANY respect for scum like you, but to forget an entire language. Tsk, tsk. That does not say anything positive for your intelligence."_ Leaping forward, to come eye-to-eye with Naruto's illusionary persona, the crazed man finished his rant, grinding his teeth and spitting every word. _"So why don't we drop the pleasantries and the bullshit."_ The man reached for his left hand.

Yanking it out of reach, Naruto stumbled backwards, away from the unitard man. "What the hell is your problem?"

A thin white strand shot out of the man's wrist, latching onto Naruto's coat. _"Get over here!"_ the man yelled, pulling on his coat. Technique dispelled and billowing smoke, Naruto dropped low, his arms coming free of the jacket it flew towards the now hostile man.

Rolling away from crazy, Naruto leaped into the trees trying to make his escape.

"_Oh no you don't!"_ The crazy shouted, following him into the trees and leaping after him.

Getting back onto the street, Naruto dropped down behind the fence separating the park from the public. He quickly checked to make sure that he looked all right, that is, looked like himself. He grabbed the child sized shirt and pants, his shoes, and the cash in his pockets. It was thankfully all how it was supposed to be, and none of it recognizable to the blue ninjas, and hopefully the unitard man. Getting up, Naruto was treated to the sight of the unitard man jumping over his head, and landing on one of the street lights. The man then leaped away, yelling a curse as a patrolling nin-car started flashing lights and whining. The nin-car took off after the crazy man then, and Naruto thought that they deserved each other. He then ran back into the park to get his jacket before the spaz in red and blue decided to stake it out to wait for him.

Walking away from the park, the entire world seemingly oblivious to him, Naruto had a good feeling about his stay here. Then his stomach rumbled.

'Before tomorrow gets here, though, I think I'll get something to eat.'

**AN**

Wow… that one took a REALLY long time. Sorry, I've been typing other stories. Mostly Fractured Fate, but also a couple of others. Hopefully the next one will come out sooner.

There is also a beta now, and their name is 7 Winds. He's pretty good, y'all should check him out.

7 Winds?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (it is owned by Masashi Kishimoto), or Marvel (IT is owned by Stan Lee… or Disney… someone who isn't me anyway). So please don't sue me… Please?

"Behold. I am smiling."- Person Talking

"_You ain't from round these parts, is ya?"_- Person talking in foreign language

'I feel the need.'- Person Thinking

[Bang]- Specific noises

_/Transgender Transformation Technique/_- Techniques

**WARNING**-In this chapter there is murder, graphic violence, and mention of child molestation. Keep reading if you dare.. and are over the age of 16.

:Line Break:- Line breaks

'It seems,' Naruto thought to himself, 'That 4000 ryo will get me a lot farther than I thought.'

Glancing around the restaurant he was in, Naruto thought back to the expression on the cashiers face when he handed her a 100 ryo note for a meal (the ordering process itself consisting of just pointing at one of the delicious looking pictures of food on the wall behind the cashier). It was basically just barely masked contempt, but he was used to that. What he wasn't expecting though, was for her to hand back 96 ryo. If it only cost him four ryo for a meal, then he could live for a month or more just based on that one cash box.

Taking another bite of whatever it was he was eating, tasting vaguely of beef, Naruto started planning his future.

'I have enough money to last me a little while, but not forever. While I have it I should be taking a look around and see what I can find out about where I am. A store with some maps not in the gibberish language they speak here could help a long way.' A sip of a cool fizzy drink interrupted his thoughts. 'It's getting pretty cool around here two. Winter must be coming on. I'll need a permanent place to stay. Someplace I can spend nights, sleeping relatively warm, and someplace where I can put anything that might help me figure out where I am or where Konoha is.' One of the tv screens got a bit loud at that point, making Naruto pay attention to it.

"_Ellis Island, once the arriving point for American immigrants, is opening its doors again. Preparations are nearly completed for the United Nations World Summit. The event promises to be the largest single gathering of world leaders in history. Leaders will discuss issues ranging from the world's economy and weapon treaties, to the mutant phenomenon and its impact on our world stage. Many American legislators contend that debate over mutant issue, should be the primary focus of what is, on the surface at least, a strictly diplomatic affair."_

(Taken From X-Men, 2000)

Turning back to his food, Naruto dismissed the tv he couldn't understand, unaware of the life changing events that would take place on Ellis Island.

Tossing away the wrappers that his food came in, Naruto made his way into the bathroom, thankfully marked the same way as Konoha, and proceeded with his morning ritual.

Gathering his chakra, Naruto slowly, carefully formed a single, strange handsign.

_/Space Time Technique: Great Abyss/_

A small wind stirred around Naruto's feet, kicking around small pieces of toilet paper and trash on the floor. And then all was once again still. Looking around, our blond hero gave naught but a shrug. Reconfiguring his fingers, Naruto made a strange, but slightly different, handsign.

_/Space Time Technique: Great Abyss/_

The bathroom was still, as if mocking his attempts at the jutsu that brought him here. Shrugging again he left the bathroom.

'Better than most mornings.' Naruto thought, recalling how every morning he spent in this strange new place attempting to use the jutsu that he hoped would once again send him home.

'No such luck so far, though.' He thought to himself bitterly, making his way outside.

It had been months since Naruto had first arrived, and the days were just starting to get noticeably shorter, and the nights colder. Naruto didn't know the month or the season, and coming from a tropical climate like Konoha, he had no relative knowledge of the seasons or even the cold. Naruto was truly out of his depth as he wrapped the jacket around his small form.

'I need a place to stay, and I need blankets and an oven to stay warm, and I should get them soon.' Naruto thought, shivering against a cold, hard wind. 'And I need to find out where I am, or at least in what direction Fire Nation is, or the Elemental Countries are, and how far. If I stay too much longer, I might be stuck here.'

:Line Break:

Three weeks later saw a now much more bundled Naruto in a pickle.

Over the past three weeks, he had bought all the food he could eat, a back pack, blankets, a flashlight with batteries, some of what he assumed were emergency ration bars, a hat with a brim in only one direction, a blue, long-sleeve shirt, a pair of coarse, blue pants, a pair of shoes with traction on the bottom, and socks. He had tried to buy more with the blue bills that he had procured, but that always ended with Naruto having to dodge the blue ninja again.

'They're probably booby trapped or something. It took me ages to get the blue color off of my hands.' He thought; as he attempted to pry open the ATM before him.

He had also taken up a habit of sleeping in a small, rented room, which ran up quite a bill over time. It ran him about 150 ryo a night for a crappy little room that had… something on the ceiling and was occupied mostly by the bed. He was pretty sure that he was getting ripped off.

'No, I am absolutely sure. It's just that I haven't found anywhere permanent to stay yet, so I keep hopping to places that keep ripping me off until I do.'

The lock on the outside finally gave way, opening up to the steel framework in the belly of the machine. Quickly setting to work on the lock there, Naruto's mind started wandering back to a permanent address.

'Well not really permanent,' He thought, giving a grunt of effort as he pushed on the bit of metal even harder, trying to force the lock. 'More like, until I find out where the fuck I am, so I can go home.'

Every single day he had tried the space time jutsu that had brought him here, and every day it had failed, with varying degrees of strangeness. Most times, nothing would happen at all. Then sometimes, a strong breeze would blow from nowhere. Other times there would be a flash of light. And one time there was a duck. No reason, no explanation, he just made the hand seal, and there was a duck in front of him that wasn't there before. It waddled around a bit, confusedly trying to get its bearings, and then took off with a disturbed quack. It was the third strangest moment that he had experienced in this foreboding place.

[Pop]

[CLANG]

Withholding a yelp of success, Naruto took out his now ratty black t-shirt, and opened his back pack.

Yanking out the now familiar four cases of money, Naruto popped the lids off of all of them, ripping out and tossing away the blue tainted, useless money. Getting to the crisp green bills underneath, Naruto put aside his shirt and started stuffing the ryo notes into his pack. The process lasted for a few more minutes until the bins of money were empty.

Swinging his pack on and leaving the useless notes, and his t-shirt behind, Naruto quickly ran down the closest alleyway, trying to get off of the streets and away from the inevitable response of the slow ANBU team.

Making it to another street, Naruto ducked behind a dumpster, dropping his transformation of a young teen with dark skin. Searching around to see if there were any onlookers, Naruto transformed into one of the blue ANBU that he had seen on his last heist. Getting up, and picking up his bag, Naruto made his way down the street, whistling.

Walking in a straight line for about five blocks, Naruto ducked into a public restaurant. Looking around the place, Naruto saw a rich looking merchant, with a suit, hat, and brief case. 'Perfect' Naruto thought, focusing on his appearance in his minds eye. Walking into the bathroom, he took off his backpack, and Naruto's hands blurred into motion.

_/Transformation/_

Looking in the mirror, Naruto saw an exact copy of the man sitting in the restaurant, eating lunch. Giving himself a nod, Naruto picked up his briefcase (formerly a backpack), and made his way out of the café. Taking a left on the street, and walking away from his crime, Naruto rubbed his chin to hide a smile.

'I might not like stealing,' He thought, moving past a group of children. 'But I can at least appreciate doing it well.'

:Line Break:

Sitting in his van, Frank peered across the street searching the crowd for his target.

'Richard J. Monrow, Caucasian, age of 43. He went to Yale, graduated with a degree in law near the top of his class top 5%. He was picked up straight out of school by a shipping magnate, where he then milked his contract to the point where he was making six, seven figures a year. He got married, had two kids, later divorced his wife who took both of them. Reasons unknown to the public at large. Dick Monrow, millionaire, lawyer, philanthropist,' Thought Frank, pushing another round into a 9mm magazine, 'Child molester.'

'Over the course of the last five years, Dick has raped and murdered 14 children, ranging in age from six to twelve.' Spotting his target smiling at another group of children, Frank calmly put the suppressed 9mm in a deep pocket in his trench coat. 'Two Latino, three Black, eight White, and one Asian. All of their bodies were dumped into the river, their throats slit and semen still inside of their small, fragile forms. It has taken me a month to track the murders back to one piece of scum.'

Crossing the street, Frank blended into the crowd around him, stealthily approaching the target, waiting for him to be vulnerable, even for an instant.

'this isn't a lone hero cleaning up the town. This isn't the angry parent taking revenge for a lost child. This is not a cop trying to do what is right outside of the law. No. This is much simpler than that. This is Justice, primal and raw.' Seeing Dick turn into an alley, Frank Castle withdrew the pistol, turning into the alley right behind Mr. Monrow.

'This is Punishment.'

:Line Break:

"_Richard Monrow."_ Ground out a voice from behind Naruto. Continuing to walk, Naruto only stopped when the stranger shouted.

"_RICHARD MONROW!"_ Turning, Naruto saw a tall, broad man, clad in all dark clothing. The tips of his coat barely scraping along the ground near his boots, his black pants matching his black shirt, save for a white skull emblazoned on it. The face of the man might as well have been steel for all the emotion it showed. Then a low [THEW] was heard, followed by something impacting Naruto's 'face' dispelling the henge, smoke covering the alley.

Staggering under the phantom pain, Naruto ducked down, and began to run away from the dark man. He made it not three steps before another impact hit him in the back.

Clutching his right side, Naruto screamed in agony. The pain he was in was like nothing he had ever experienced, not like falling off the Hokage Monument, not like putting his hand on his hot stove, unlike the time he accidentally stabbed his hand with a kunai, and completely unlike burning his mouth on ramen. He could barely stay aware of the world around him save for the crushing pain that he felt.

Falling to his knees, Naruto tried to crawl away as the footsteps of the dark man grew closer. Trying to take a breath, it only came out as a wracking cough, and a wheeze, making his chest hurt worse than before and coppery tastes come to his tongue. Naruto's world was beginning to fade out around the edges as he collapsed onto his back.

"_A kid?"_ He heard the dark man say, as if from a great distance.

"No…please don't." Naruto managed to say between mouthfuls of blood. The world fell to black and Naruto knew no more.

:Line Break:

'Fuck.' Castle thought, opening his battlefield aid pack. 'Not only did I lose eyes on Monrow, but now a kid gets hit in the crossfire.'

Reaching into his pack, Castle pulled out a tampon, a bandage and wrap. Tying a string around the end of the tampon, Frank put the string through the hole in the kids chest, turning him onto his side to pull the string all the way through. Pausing to put a hand on the child's forehead, saying only "This is going to hurt kid." before pulling on the string harder, yanking the tampon through the ruined part of the boys chest. The childs reaction was to thrash weakly, spitting up some blood and to have a coughing fit. Acting quickly, Frank put bandages on either side of the bullet hole before wrapping the kids whole chest.

'Good. Now, the lung won't collapse while the paramedics are on the way, and all he'll need is a blood transfusion.' Picking one of his burner cell's out of his pockets, Castle dialed 911.

"This is nine-one-one, please state the nature of your emergency." Said the young and obviously female responder.

"Yeah, I need an ambulance on the corner of fifth and Grand. Kid's been shot in the chest, and he's losing blood fast." Some fast-paced typing was heard, followed by the voice of the responder again.

"I've alerted authorities, they are on the way, please stay-" Castle thought she was probably going to say something like 'on the line' but he just dropped the phone next to the kid.

Looking at his victim, Frank said "Stay out of trouble." before launching himself down the alley in search of his elusive prey.

:Line Break:

The first thing that Naruto was aware of was the sound of rhythmic [beep]ing, followed by a low chattering in the background. He tried opening his eyes, but they were so damn heavy, he could just barely crack them.

He was on a soft bed, so soft that it couldn't be anything he owned or be any place he stayed. Looking around at the ceiling and the décor, Naruto knew immediately where he was. 'Hospital,' Naruto thought to himself, 'It has to be. Nowhere else could try so hard to be homely and only come off as soulless.' Struggling to sit up, and to bring himself to full wakefulness, Naruto thought 'But why am I here?'

A dull ache permeated the right side of his chest and back, bringing to light Naruto's recent memories. 'Oh, that's why.'

"_Good morning, or afternoon really."_ Spoke a happy voice, and Naruto found himself reluctantly soothed by it. _"How are you feeling?"_

"I don't suppose you are going to say anything useful, like how soon I will be out of here." He bit out, not expecting a response.

"Normally, I would say that you would be lucky to recover at all, and even then it would take months, maybe years. But with your rate of recovery… You've been here three days and you are almost fully healed!" The kind sounding voice noted.

Naruto took that information, nodding a few times. 'I always was a fast healer back home, I could never get out of there fast enough.'

"Where am I?" he queried his attendant.

"You're in Lenox and Mercy." She said, looking at a chart.

Waiting a beat, Naruto asked again. "Where is that?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry. We are located in the Upper East side, right near Central Park."

Quickly growing tired again, Naruto requested his location again. "And where is That?"

Looking up from her chart, the woman arched a delicate eyebrow. "Central Park?"

Rolling his eyes, he responded. "Sure, but the Upper East side as well."

"It's in New York City." The doctor spoke again, gesturing out of the window. 'Didn't notice that.' He thought to himself.

"What is New York City?"

The doctor looked stunned. Trying to answer quickly, she said. "It is one of the largest cities in the world, the city that you happen to be in."

"Ok, but where is it, on a national scale." Naruto said, thinking to himself 'If she knows where I am, she might also know where home is.'

"It's on the east coast of the United States of America, in the state of New York." She said now giving him a completely lost look.

"Ok, but where is that?"

"Where is America?" She stated, clearly skeptical now.

"Yeah."

"It's just a hop over the Pacific Ocean from Japan." She revealed, gesturing with her left hand vaguely.

Throwing his head back down on the pillows, Naruto had one final question. "Great, but what are those?"

"What is Japan?" Sarcasm dripped off of every word.

"Yeah."

Shaking her head, she sat down by Naruto's bed. "How much do you remember before waking up here?"

Thinking back, if only to appease the doctor enough so she finally answered a question of his, Naruto related to her the events of the day before. "Well, I remember a _really_ sharp pain in my chest, and a man in black with a white skull on his front standing over me. And that was, like, the last thing I remember before passing out."

"What about before then." The white-coated woman asked impatiently. "Do you remember anything from before?"

It was Naruto's turn to arch an eyebrow. "I remember everything from before then." Sitting up in his bed, Naruto looked down at himself, only to see a white hospital robe. Looking back up at the white clad doctor, he queried, "Do you know where my stuff is?"

She cautiously nodded, letting loose a drawn out "Are you talking about your bloody clothes, or the red and black backpack that was found near you?"

"Both, I suppose." Narrowing his eyes, Naruto asked. "Why, where are they?"

"It was taken by the police after they saw 48,000 dollars stuffed in there, and just about all of it having been ripped out of an ATM a few blocks from where the ambulance found you." She sat a bit further from the bed now, as if worried about our blond heroes reaction.

Pointedly closing his eyes and shaking his head, he asked her. "What were you doing going through my stuff in the first place? And who are 'the Police'?"

"We were trying to find contact information for your parents or guardians. We need to receive permission for any major surgery that isn't immediately necessary for saving the patient's life." Straightening her glasses, she sat back in her chair. "With you, it wasn't actually necessary. Like I said before, your rate of recovery borders on miraculous."

Sorting through everything he had been told, Naruto could only come to one conclusion. "I'm not getting my stuff back, am I?"

"Not unless someone shoved that money into your backpack. Oh, and answering you question from earlier, the police are men and women in blue uniform who uphold the law." The doctor answered flippantly, making a few notes on her clipboard.

'Fuck! That was all of my stuff! I can steal it all again but it's still a pain!' Raising a hand to brush his hand through his hair, Naruto heard a [clink]ing sound. Looking at his hands, he saw a pair of metal cuffs chaining him to the bed.

"Like I said," spoke the doctor, looking at him with sympathetic eyes. "The police really want to know what you were doing with fifty thousand dollars of stolen money. All that can wait until you answer a few questions first." My groggy mind accepted that.

"What would you like to know?"

"Well, to start I would like your name, your age, and a number where I can reach your parents, or guardians." Said the doctor, straightening her blouse.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki,

"Good to meet you, Naruto. I'm Susan Nakamura."

"Hi." Naruto said offhandedly. "And I'm… what is the date?"

"It's September third."

"Then I guess I'm thirteen next month." Naruto stopped there, with the doctor looking on expectantly. "And your parents?" she asked when she saw that he was mum on the subject.

"Don't have any, Guardians either."

"I'm sorry." She said, obviously meaning it. "But where have you been staying?"

"Wherever I can." She looked a little taken aback at that answer, but pursed her lips, capped her pen and made to stand.

"All right. That's enough for me. You stay here and get some rest, I just have a few things to take care of. I'll be back when I can."

"Ok. I guess I'll see you later." She made her way to the door before a realization suddenly hit Naruto.

"Wait a minute." Opening his eyes wide, Naruto stared at the woman in his hospital room, dressed in a white coat with blue baggy clothing underneath.

"I can understand you."

The woman tilted her head, as if confused.

"Of course you can. That's how we've been speaking for the last" She said, looking down at a watch, "Ten minutes now."

"No you don't understand." He said lolling his head back and forth. "You are the FIRST person that I could actually understand. In this, what did you call it, 'New York City', out of all of the hundreds, maybe thousands of people I have seen, you were the first person who could actually understand me, and that I could understand! It's like everyone else is speaking a different language."

Again the doctor looked at him confusedly. "They are speaking a different language. They are speaking English. WE are speaking _Nihongo_, Japanese."

Furrowing his brow, Naruto continued. "But why don't they speak our language? Or why can you speak mine?"

"My parents were Japanese, and they were very strict about their tradition. Everyone else speaks English, because the United States is a primarily English speaking country, and we are in the United States, right now." Waiting for a second to see if Naruto had any more questions, the doctor left the room, closing the door behind her.

From beyond the door Naruto could still hear her talking, albeit in that strange foreign tongue, English.

"_Nurse, would you please call security, I want a man posted outside of that door at all times."_

"_Is something wrong doctor?"_

"_That child has either had a severe concussion or a full on break from reality. That and he described being shot by someone who might have been the Punisher."_

[Gasp]_"You mean the psychotic vigilante killer?"_

"_Yes, of course that one. Now less questions and more security!"_

'All right,' Naruto thought to himself. 'I have one of two options. One, I stay here and let the authorities of this village, _New York City_, take me wherever, and I try to find out more about this place and Konoha. OR I break out of here, and I head out and try to find where Konoha is all on my lonesome.'

Rubbing his forehead, Naruto could feel his thoughts moving sluggishly back and forth in his mind. 'I need to clear my head. But first decision time. Should I stay or should I go?'

'Staying puts me square under the boot of whomevers jurisdiction or purview I happen to fall under, but I will probably have access to more people who speak a civilized tongue, and thus more information, that I might or might not be able to trust. Nothing against Doc Nakamura, but I don't have the best track record with adults and telling the truth. On the other hand, I have running, and with that freedom comes the risks involved, such as running into the man in black again. With that approach I have freedom, and I wouldn't wake up tied to a bed.' Naruto thought over his mental arguments before giving a solitary nod. 'Yeah, better to have the freedom and the risk, than putting my fate into the hands of random asshole #8.'

'So, I'm breaking out of here.' Naruto thought, looking around the room. 'There is one window, but I can barely here the bustle of the street, so I have to be pretty high up. Hands are cuffed to the bedframe, and I can't put them together to make handseals. My feet,' Naruto thought wiggling aforementioned extremities, 'Are fine, un-cuffed and unhindered. Aside from that, there is the bed, a tv plugged into the ceiling, a closed door that's most likely guarded. '

'Methods of escape, #1. I make a lot of noise complaining about having to go to the bathroom. Guard comes in and uncuffs me, and I make a break for it.' Thinking about that plan, Naruto shook his head slightly. 'No idea about the number of guards, their whereabouts, their armament, and if that failed, I probably wouldn't be allowed out again. Also' He thought, shaking his rump back and forth, 'It feels like they already gave me a bedpan. Gross.'

'Method #2. I bust the handcuffs with brute strength, and climb down the side of the building. Not bad, but it all depends on how strong these cuffs are. So call that plan a maybe.'

'Method #3. I try a sealess Kawarimi, open the window, make a clone which will then holler, I transform into a potted plant while my clone gets seen going out the window and then I walk out of here. I don't know if I can do a sealess body replacement, let alone make a clone. So that's probably a no.'

'Method #4. Call the guard in, ask him to turn up the volume on the tv, replace my body with his without handseals, with the tv turned up, no one will hear me or him as I knock him out. Then I transform into him and walk out of here. Once again relying on something I don't know how to do. Let's see if I can even manage it first, before inviting the guard in.' With that thought, Naruto began focusing his chakra.

He could feel it, the power he had inside, coursing all through him, like blood rushing with his heartbeat. 'This is the tricky part.' He thought, siphoning some chakra from the roiling mass pulsing through him. He seized it, and started shaping it, molding it into a form, so it had a function. Then he pushed.

_/Body Replacement Technique/_

Naruto found himself sprawled in the middle of the room. 'Without any handcuffs on!' Naruto thought excitedly, checking his wrists. Then he looked down at the rest of him. 'Without any clothes either, for that matter.' He gave a shrug. 'I call it a win. I may be naked, but I'm free.'

[POOOOOOOO] came a sound from behind Naruto, coming from the electronic equipment that he was hooked up to.

"_Nurse, get a crash cart in there, we have a code blue!"_ came a shout from outside.

"So much for leaving undetected, Naruto muttered opening the window. Picturing a plant in his mind, his hands formed the reverse ram seal.

_/Transformation/_

The doctor from earlier, 'Susan.' Naruto supplied mentally, and several others rushed into the room, only to be face to face with an empty cot, and an open window.

"_I guess he did steal that money"_ Susan said quietly, Naruto barely making it out over the ruckus.

"_He's escaped!"_ Shouted the blue nin, 'Police' Naruto corrected. _"It looks like he went out the window. I'm investigating now"_. Running to the window, the officer ran right into Naruto the plant.

An explosion of smoke covered the room. The police man swore while Naruto kicked the legs out from under him. The blue nin went down hard, giving Naruto time to wrestle on top of him. The man was starting to regain his tempo when the boy slugged him in the temple. The police man didn't move after that.

'Sorry.' Naruto apologized mentally, 'But I am not being locked up today.'

Rifling through the police man's pockets before the smoke cleared, Naruto took away, a flashlight, a wallet with a small amount of money, and the crossbow/dart launcher, the same as the one the man in black used against him.

Smirking, Naruto made the reverse ram sign again, this time making him look like the man on the ground. Jogging towards the door, pushing past people on the way, Naruto went into the hallway, bending at the waist and pretending to cough, waving off any help.

People were running to and fro, panicking at what the smoke meant. _"A fire?"_ yelled one woman,_ "A mutant?"_ screamed another. More security made their way up the stairs and towards Naruto's former residency. Going down a different set of stairs, Naruto ducked into a bathroom, transforming into a random passerby in his mid 40's and balding blonde hair.

Naruto smiled as he walked out of the Emergency Room exit.

'Out 48,000 ryo, but I came out with two things I didn't have. 1, Knowledge of this New York City. And 2,' Naruto thought, patting his transformed pocket, and the 9mm pistol that lay inside it. '2, a weapon.'

Naruto walked into a nearby fast food joint, whistling a happy tune.

:Line Break:

A day later, and Naruto stood looking at a store that was displaying a sign that he could actually read.

He was dressed in a new outfit. 'Just stole it about four hours ago.' He wore a patchwork red and black sweatshirt, with a grey hood. Underneath lay a dark green shirt, and blue pants. Completing the look was a pair of black boots and socks, as well as a backpack that held the take from his latest ATM heist, his spare clothes, several tools, and all of his weapons but a knife he carried in his sleeve. 'I have to better armed and prepared for the next time the man in black shows up.

Shaking his head, Naruto walked across the street and into the store.

"_Welcome to Dokusho bookstore, how may I help you?"_, Said the attractive teen behind the counter.

"_Nihongo_, Japanese?" Naruto queried.

"Of course." The young lady responded.

Smiling Naruto continued. "Hi, I would like a World Atlas, a Japanese-to-English Dictionary, a thesaurus, and…"Here Naruto trailed off, looking pensive.

"And?"

"Do you happen to have anything on the 'Elemental Countries'?"

**AN**

Thanks for reading everybody!

Sorry it got a little graphic there with the Punisher, but then I needed to show you all that I deserve the M – Rating

Also, about Naruto trying to find home, that is his main motivation for nearly everything he is doing here. Eventually, he will have other motivations, but that is it so far. First he has to find home, then he can go home, all the while trying to get there using the space time abyss jutsu to accomplish just that. That is not to say that he succeeds, just that it is his motivation and base objectives.

Next up we have some power experimentation, a secret lair, and a battle of matched foes (I leave you to guess who).

To Secret Weapon Unit 06, yes I am aware that the Naruto does in fact, have guns. However, you never see them in use, and you NEVER see them in Konoha. Which as I have said, is the only place where Naruto has ever been, so naturally he doesn't know what they are, or what they look like, nor what they do. Even IN naruto's world, the firearms are flintlocks, circa 1800's, and the only ones seen are rifles, not the pistols that the NYPD carry.

I would also like to take a moment and thank Resident Beta, 7 Winds, for being truly awesome and reviewing all of this.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN SHIT!

"Behold. I am smiling."- Person Talking

"_Is a seal a dog mermaid?"_- Person Talking in foreign language

'Pwned.'- Person Thinking

[Bang]- Specific noises

_/Transgender Transformation Technique/_- Techniques

:Line Break:- Line breaks

It was the better part of a week before Naruto finally found what he had been looking for. Not Konoha, of course, that was just as out of reach as ever. But Naruto finally found a place where he wouldn't get wet in the rain; he wouldn't be cold whenever it started freezing or getting windy, and a place that wouldn't cost him anything.

'The only real problem is the damp.' Thought Naruto, standing in the center of a great, open, underground circle. Looking over the room, easily two hundred feet in diameter, Naruto tried noting the specifics. There is an island in the middle, separated from the ring of dry(ish) land on the outskirts of the room by a 'moat' of sorts. The ring goes from the wall about 20-25 feet to the 'moat', then the moat goes on for another 10 or 15, then the rest of the room was taken up by the 'island'. The room itself was located a fair distance from any direct surface entrance, close enough for a quick getaway, and far enough away to ensure that no one could just drop in immediately. Even then, there were only four doors in to or out of the room, and all of them were steel and had deadbolts.

'All in all, defensible, spacey, and it has plenty of room for anything I could possibly want. All I need at first is some tarps to separate the rest of the room from the water, otherwise it'll stay all damp and mildewey.' Naruto thought, trying to make a mental checklist of what he would need.

'A shitload of those tarps, this place is massive. I am also going to need a place to sleep, make it a bed with proper sheets and the like, also a desk and a book case where I can put and use any and all maps that I will be getting in order to find some mention of either Konohagakure, or the Elemental Nations at large. I need a supply of food in case things on the surface get too hot, the water down in the moat looks pretty clean, so I should be good there, but just in case I better get it bottled. Furthermore, I should also get some electricity in here, so that means either a generator, or getting the wiring already present and rerouting it here so I can actually power a space heater, or a reading lamp, I am going to need them in the 'winter' months coming up. I can't believe it actually snows here.' Pondering the current line of thought, Naruto realized he had never actually seen snow.

'Getting back on things I need, though. I am going to need a dresser, along with more clothing to fill it, in particular underwear. And I am going to need a store of money, so that way if I get caught with it outside then I can drop it and still have enough for food and things. And I should start training with jutsu again soon. I am getting better at using them, but I need to be more creative with them and faster, especially if I am going to be fighting that crazy guy in his pajamas or the man in black again.'

'Another thing on the agenda is to better learn how to use all of these weapons,' Naruto thought, thinking about the several different knives and projectiles he had picked up over the past week. ' The knives I know how to use, but that _gun_ is still a complete mystery to me. I can't get it to fire!'

He shook his head summing up his list mentally. 'So it's buying the things I need, sprucing the place up a bit to make it livable, researching geography in hopes of illuminating a way home, and training in weapons and jutsu for the inevitable fights I am going to have before I get there.' He gave a nod. 'Yup that's everything.' Cracking his neck, he left his future abode.

'Time to get to work.'

:Line Break:

Over the course of the following week, Naruto spent every waking moment in an attempt to better either himself or his living situation. When he wasn't buying what he needed with stolen money, he was attempting to learn the ways of marksmanship with the _gun_. He also spent a fair amount of time getting to know the system of tunnels underneath the city.

'I can't believe I ever ran across this room in the first place. I mean, there I was running from the _'Police'_, when I fell through a hole in the ground. I ran some more, down that tunnel and down another, and after about five minutes of random turns, I come across this thing. They searched for three days but never found a thing.'

By far, though, what he had spent the most time on was developing his jutsu. 'Sure, I still can't do the Bunshin, but I bet none of the others at the academy can do what I can now.' Focusing for three seconds, Naruto forced his chakra outward, moving 20 feet in the blink of an eye.

Looking around, Naruto gave a nod of satisfaction. 'I didn't substitute with anything, I went about twenty feet, and I still have my clothes on. I'll call that a win. Looking for something to improve however,' Naruto thought, going back to his start position, 'I need to get the concentration time down. It's great for breaking out of restraints, but it can't be useful in combat yet. The Transformation, however,' Naruto thought with a smirk, before transforming into a large dark man standing easily seven feet tall. 'All without handseals or chakra smoke. Damn I'm fantastic.'

Frowning, Naruto made three hand signs. There was an explosion of smoke, and when it settled, Naruto could be seen standing behind three, half alive, semi coalesced clones.

'Better than last time, but still not really useful for anything other than a smoke screen, and speaking of smoke screen,' Naruto thought, before holding the Ram sign.

Smoke poured out of the ground around Naruto obscuring the entirety of the cavernous room.

'And that's another jutsu added to those I've made, the Smoke Screen Technique. It's too bad my other techniques don't work here.' Grimacing in remembrance of the epic failure that was his attempt at utilizing his former best technique, Naruto moved back to continuing to practice his jutsu.

Grabbing a chair and lifting it up onto his back, Naruto transformed into himself, but without his burden. 'And all this out of experimentation with one of the most basic jutsu! I wonder what else I can do with these…'

He continued for an hour, trying to get the time on his substitutions down, and attempting new ways to combine or manipulate his techniques.

Naruto had to derive as much pleasure as he could from his achievements in ninjutsu, because the other areas of study he had indulged in were yielding little.

After his hour of practicing jutsu, he went to the shower next to a set of stairs leading to an abandoned sewer treatment facility. Thankfully, it was only five minutes' walk from his hideout.

Having done that, showered, and changed into a fresh set of clothes, he sat at a desk he had gotten a few days ago, staring at the rough sketches he had done of the elemental nations. Taking another moment to get out the world atlas, he paused before beginning his work.

'After nearly three weeks of going through every kind of map book, atlas, and asking whomever could understand me about the Elemental Nations, I have yet to find anything! There is no mention of them in any text I read, there is no mention of them on any map I see, and no-one seems to know a thing about them!' He took a breath and calmed down before he ripped the page he was looking at.

'I know that the villages are supposed to be hidden, but all the nations as well?' Giving a shake of his head, he pulled the rough sketches he had etched earlier over to him. 'Now I have this new idea. Going through to every map again to try and find a match to the coast line of Fire Country. So far, I have had no luck, but I will keep searching.' He took a sad little look at his surroundings, at the dim lighting and the damp walls, and only one thought ran through his mind.

'I need to go home…'

:Line Break:

After picking up a few more things for his new 'lair' Naruto was beginning to run short on money again.

'Weeellll,' Naruto thought to himself, ducking through a crowd on route to his target, 'Not short, exactly, but I have less than I'd like. Renovating that hole is proving to be much more expensive than originally planned.'

Indeed, Naruto had bought a desk for his studying, along with a bookshelf for the same purpose. Then he had also bought a mid-sized bed, a generator, a shitload of tarps, a bureau for holding all of his clothes, the clothes to fill it, knives in abundance (including a set of kunai from one place that he was happy about), a target (which was surprisingly easy to find considering how much trouble he had to go through for the knives), lights for the cave, and food, as well as other expenses while he was looking for home.

'And now I need more cash.'

It was already night, but that didn't matter to the crowded train tunnel. 'I don't think this city ever sleeps.'

Choosing to go through back alleys, Naruto arrived at his target not five minutes later. Standing across from the machine placed on a tantalizingly empty street, he grinned to himself. 'This is gonna be a piece of cake.' He thought, before transforming into a police uniform, and beginning his work.

:Line Break:

Having already opened the front and broken the frame protecting the money, Naruto was nearly homefree, when a voice spoke up behind him.

"_Get down on the ground and place your hands on your head!"_

'And this was going so well, too.' Naruto thought before standing up, turning around and putting his hands on his head. He saw two police men, one standing on the far side of the car, and the other getting his weapon out and aimed at Naruto.

"_I said- wait… Barry is that you?"_ Hearing the questioning tone, Naruto gave a nod. 'If nothing else, it buys me a little time while I plan what to do.

"_Jesus you gave me a scare! Thought you were some hood up to no good!"_ Said the uniformed man, holstering his weapon and moving closer to Naruto. In the distance the other officer was also lowering his weapon. 'Three more steps and he's within striking distance.' Naruto thought, a plan formulating in his mind.

The man slowed down. _"Barry? You ok? You aren't saying anything and- jesus who did that!"_ The policeman yelled seeing the bust open ATM. He never got his question answered as Naruto leaped forward, and nailed the man with a right cross to the throat.

Dispelling the technique, Naruto grabbed at the make shift kunai holster on his hip, throwing one of the knives at the officer on the far side of the car. A scream came from the police man as he clutched at his hand, a knife sticking out painfully.

'Got to get a move on.' Naruto thought, yanking out the bins of money, sorting through to get everything he could as fast as possible.

"_Officer down on 28th and Broadway, backup is required! Subject is a mutie shape shifter, armed and dangerous!"_ Naruto heard from behind him, as he continued sorting the money.

Finally done with his task, Naruto turned back to the street, determined to get out of there as quickly as possible. Running to the end of the street, Naruto almost slammed into the police car that was pulling up there. Taking off before the men could get out of their cars, he ran down the side walk, the wailing siren on the cars behind him growing closer. Seeing one or two police cars coming down the street ahead of him, Naruto looked around for an alley to duck into…but none presented itself.

'Ok, police on all sides, all armed, all of whom would turn me in to a 'proper authority', and I want to avoid any of those, thank you very much. But how to escape when all areas of the street are blocked off?' He thought for a moment before the answer came to him. 'Only the streets are blocked off.'

Concentrating on his chakra, Naruto let it build up under his feet, and in his legs. The cars pulled up right in front of him, the men scrambling out of their cars and holding their weapons in a manner they probably thought threatening.

"_STOP OR WE'LL SHOOT!"_ Shouted one of the officers. _"There's no point in running, we have you completely surrounded, mutie!"_

"I only caught _surrounded_. But no," Naruto said to the men assembled in front of him, before leaping onto the street lamp above them. "You don't."

Leaping to the next before the men opened fire, Naruto quickly began to distance them, before jumping onto the roof of a building smaller than the others around it, and using that as a base to leap to the next building over. The police shouting sounded far away.

"_He's not on a street, he's flying on rooftops!"*_1

Feeling the thrill of excitement as he continued racing away with his prize, Naruto visibly wilted as he realized he made two mistakes. The first he figured out when he looked at his hand. 'I forgot to put the transformation back up!' Naruto thought groaning aloud. The second mistake made itself known when a blue and red fist appeared right in front of his face, sending him skidding along the gravel surface of the rooftop.

"_Ehh, what's up doc?"_ Said the red and blue clad figure lazing against an AC unit.

'Not this asshole again.' Naruto looked up at the crazy man in tights. "I don't suppose you'd mind letting me go?"

"_Cute, but this is America, speak 'Merican!"_ The crazy man shouted at Naruto.

'Now with the shouting, this guy is so annoying!' And with that thought, Naruto climbed to his feet, shouldered the backpack full of money, and said the one line in _English_ that he had focused on and studied until he knew how to say it perfectly.

"_Fuck off."_

The head of the crazy man snapped back, as if he had just been slapped. _"Wow, looks like someone has a pottymouth! And here I was hoping to keep this G-rated. That's the problem with you scumbags, no appreciation for other people. First you start swearing up a storm as kids and then you're stealing from the nice pedestrians, then you go to jail and often enough you come back worse! Seriously, it's like a constant downward spiral with you people!"_

'OK, the 'Make-him-stop-talking' maneuver backfired. Let's try something else.' Slipping off his back pack, he tossed it at the costumed freak. "Catch!" The guy was going for it right up until Naruto shouted his technique.

_/Substitution/_, Shouted Naruto, taking the place of his bag and delivering a jump kick to the chest of the costumed menace.

"_And here I wanted to play this nice."_ The tight'ed teen muttered before launching himself at Naruto.

Naruto launched another high kick only to have it caught by the freak, who then pulled the leg, throwing Naruto dangerously close to the edge of the building.

Getting up slowly, Naruto analyzed his enemy more carefully now, circling around, watching every movement the costumed teen made.

"_What is your name?"_ Naruto said, utilizing the only other phrase he had learned from an Japanese to English phrase book.

"_Who, me? I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"_ The costumed figure said, so happily that Naruto thought he could see the mask smiling at him.

Suppressing an aggravated sigh at the unduly long name, Naruto said again _"What is your name?"_ this time placing his hands so there was only a little bit of room between them. 'Hopefully he'll get the message.'

"_Me Spider-Man,"_ the freak said gesturing to himself, _"You Jane!"_

"_Spider-Man."_ Naruto tried.

"_Not exactly part of the brain trust, are you?"_ The now identified superhero joked.

'I am really going to enjoy beating the snot out of this guy!' Naruto thought, assuming a basic taijutsu stance, his hand drifting nearer to his kunai pouch.

"_NO, BAD BLONDIE! That's a bad, bad blondie!"_ Spider-Man shouted, seeing Naruto getting ready to fight.

Not taking anymore of the morons shouting, Naruto began the fight, throwing kunai after kunai at the Spider-Man. Ducking, dipping, and diving, Spider-Man leaped about with unnatural ability and grace. Naruto would have even admired it if Grace didn't decide to pop up and kick him in the face.

"Argghh!" Naruto growled audibly, stumbling backwards from the force of the kick. Charging forward again, Naruto engaged the strange man with all he had in a short bout of taijutsu.

Jabbing a body shot, Naruto was surprised when the superhero bent fully in half before kicking at his face. Jumping backwards to avoid the kick Naruto charged in again, trying another jab. Leaning out of the way Spider-Man returned a fist to Naruto's jaw. Unable to avoid it, Nauto was sent sprawling again. Spitting out phlegm, Naruto got back up, charged back in again, now trying a pair of low kicks. Each was jumped over, with Spider-Man returning a drop kcik to Naruto's chest.

"_You know,"_ the costumed man began in a joking voice, _"You think you'd learn your lesson and stay down. Seriously, do us both a favor and just take a nap, kid."_

"Damnit!" Naruto shouted as he tried to think of a way he could get past the other man's defenses. 'He's freakishly quick, and bends like a reed. The only way I am going to get to him is to try something unexpected.

Coming up with an idea, Naruto struggled to his feet, only met with mocking sternness from Spider-Man.

"_Oh, come ooonn. I am still holding back and you think you can win? Kid, you need to learn when to stay down."_

Channeling chakra to his legs, Naruto started charging towards his masked opponent. When he made it halfway, he used a chakra enhanced leap to close the distance, clipping Spider-Man with a kick.

"_Woah, Bessy! Throttle down there, or someone could get hurt! And by 'Someone', I mean you." _Spiderman said, thwipping off a web to latch onto Naruto. Using the web, Spider-Man yanked the blond-haired menace off his feet, and right into an uppercut, sent via your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

'Damnit! I forgot he had those things!' Naruto thought, spitting out gravel. 'Ok, time for unexpected plan two!' Making three handseals, Naruto called out his _/Clone Technique/_, summoning a whole sleuth of clones before following up with a transformation, making himself look exactly like his half alive doppelgangers. Spider-Man just stood in the middle of the rooftop through it all, waiting for Naruto to make his move.

That move came in the form of yet another charge by Naruto and co. Some leapt through the air in exaggerated kicks; other ran along the ground, and one stayed back throwing kunai… And Spider-Man stayed very still.

The leaping Naruto's passed right through Spider-Man, the kunai passed through anything they touched, and still the spider freak stayed very still. 'Does he know that they are just illusions? How?' Naruto thought to himself incredulously, closing the distance on his supposed victim. Moving suddenly, Spider-Man hit Naruto with a straight jab, knocking Naruto down for the last time.

"_Little known fact about me, is I have this thing called "Spider-Sense""_ The masked hero monologued to the oblivious twelve year old. _"And that "Spider-Sense" essentially allows me to tell that your little clones aren't real. It's like I said kid,"_ Spider-Man said, before pasting Naruto to the roof with his webbing. _"Stay down. Also get a better profession, I'm sure your mommy and daddy aren't very proud of you, being the little thief you are."_

'I can already tell I am starting to hate this man, even if I can't understand what he says.' Substituting himself with Spider-Man, Naruto had a moment or two before the hero would break out of his own trap.

"_What the heck? How did you do that? Why weren't you doing that during the fight_

'If he only used his web caster things at the end, then that means that he was holding back on me the entire time, and if he was holding back the entire time, and I was still losing this fight, then I don't think I can win here, and certainly not on his terms. I could kill him now, and end the fight, or I could run away while he is still trapped.' The wrenching sound of the webbing being torn apart let Naruto know of his limited time frame.

'Wait, why am I even considering killing him? I know it's what I was trained to do, and yes he is certainly an asshat, but death?' Naruto shook his head at the topic raging in his mind. 'That is something I only ever wanted to do if it's absolutely necessary. And right now, I have another option.' Grabbing his backpack, Naruto ran to the edge of the roof.

"I'd love to stick around, but I gotta run! I have some money to spend!" Naruto called over his shoulder, leaping off the building.

What Naruto did not expect was the webbing attached to his ankle. A quarter of the way through his jump the web went taught, swinging the confused blonde back towards the brick side of the building he had just leaped off.

Trying to focus on a destination to transition to, Naruto couldn't build his focus fast enough, and lost it all when smacking solidly against the wall. Dazedly Naruto's hands scrabbled at the stone as he began to fall.

'NO!' Naruto screamed mentally snapping out of his dazed state and grabbing at the wall with a chakra reinforced hand. Preparing to leap off the wall as he fell down further, Naruto was instead perplexed as he clung to the wall via his hand, which stuck to the wall like it was made of fly paper.

'What in the world?' Naruto thought, staring confusedly at his arm. And in that confusion, Naruto also stopped pumping a constant level of chakra into it. Losing adhesion to the wall, Naruto began falling again, passing no ledges, windows, or handholds of any kind. Gathering his legs against the wall, Naruto quickly pushed out some chakra to his legs for a building leap, but in his haste, he made it vastly underpowered, the leap only carrying him over the street

"Ahhh, fuck!" Naruto said, before getting very acquainted with the roof of a police car. Naruto felt his vision starting to darken as his entire body seized with pain. He felt something odd going on in his chest. It felt cold and hot all at the same time. Looking down to see the problem, Naruto got a good look at the piece of metal sticking right through his stomach. "Well that'll do it." Naruto drawled, feeling the beginning of the shock of his injury coming on. His vision started fading out as Naruto drawled, "Not again…". Before he faded completely, Naruto heard one of the officers from the car talking on a radio.

"_Yeah, Central? You are not gonna believe this, but we got that mutie thief. Yeah, so we're gonna need an ambulance, and a pickup."_

:Line Break:

As he began regaining consciousness, Naruto became oaware of three things. In order, they were the sounds of beeping machinery, the stench of heavy disinfectant, the kind that you only get at hospitals. The third made itself known.

"Ahh, I see you are finally awake." The voice was cold, mechanical, and yet containing a sort of perverse joy. Opening his eyes to get a more complete picture of his situation, Naruto saw a large, obese man with balding hair, dressed in a white lab coat and wearing glasses.

"Well let's get the introductions done then, shall we?" He asked, a little grin. "My name, is doctor John Schaeffer, this man," He said gesturing to his right, "is the renowned Tomi Shishido." Following his gesture, Naruto turned his head slowly. And there stood an imposing man, dressed in a charcoal grey suit, and with long black hair coming down to his chest. Looking up to his face, he saw nothing but a stern, hateful expression, and a pair of sunglasses blocking any view of his eyes.

"And you, my mysterious friend are Naruto Uzumaki." Continued the fat doctor. "And you have been in that bed for about three weeks now."

'Naruto's mind sluggishly struggled with that fact. 'Three weeks? But…how..?'

"Now, now, that isn't cause for alarm. You did get yourself impaled through the liver. Toxins were running rampant through your body, and you very well could have died." The doctor continued, feigning shock. "Or you would have, if not for that handy little healing factor you seem to possess."

"Admittedly," He said with a laugh, "You had that healed inside of a week. But we needed to see what your body could do under controlled conditions. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Where was I?"

"Healing factor." Came the oily voice of the man in the suit.

He was positively leering now. " Ahh yes, thank you, Mr. Shishido. This is one of the things that turned us onto you. Your medical file from that gunshot wound you had a month or so ago? Not exactly extensive, or thorough, but it's the best you can get from these so called doctors in a midtown hospital, and they did only have three days or so, thanks to you. But it still contained enough remarkable fact to get us interested." Schaeffer smacked his lips.

"The next thing that got us interested was your fight with the vigilante known as Spider-Man. You never really stood much of a chance, but then it seemed neither of you were going all out. You leapt onto the building in a feat of strength not easily equaled, and then you turn around and throw punches and kicks like that? Pathetic. But again, not what we found interesting."

"What really, truly got us interested in little ol' you, was what you did during the fight. Illusions, teleportation, super strength, agility and stamina? Oh yes, that got us very interested. So we took you out of that third rate hospital you were in and put you into our care, citing to everyone your nasty little penchant for breaking out and making mischief. You made it easy for us." He finished, giving that little smile of his that sent cold shivers running down Naruto's spine.

"But then we got into the real mystery of who, and what you are. All we know right now is that you have abilities, several we've seen and a few we haven't. But we don't truly know what you are. Sure, we know what you aren't. You aren't a mutant, because you don't carry the X-gene. But, you aren't exactly human either." The doctor stared at Naruto, as if expecting to find some kind of answer on his drugged up face.

"But I'm sure you already know of all that. Gorgon here," Gesture towards the dark man, "Has already been through all of your memories. Normally that, and a short investigation as we see what is in your blood that makes you special, would be the end of any inquiries that I would have. But you, Mr. Uzumaki, are something of a rarity."

"I'm… flattered." Naruto said, in the long pause that came after the doctor's words.

"You should be. Especially since it is your rarity that is the only thing keeping you alive." He took a moment to let that sink in. "Now, as I said, Mr. Shishido and myself have been through your memories, especially the ones concerning all of your special abilities. And a few of your home, and your past. And we have a few questions we'd like to ask you."

The doctor rolled his chair closer to Naruto's side, and stuck his face not six inches from his. "What, exactly, is Chakra?"

**AN**

Dun-Dun-DUHHHH!

Sorry, couldn't resist. Hello once again audience! I hoped you liked that chapter, cause it was a pain to write, Spidey is hard! Like really hard! Also, to make him match his on film persona in the Amazing Spiderman (SPOILERS, LOOK AWAY!) He's kinda a dick in this. Don't worry, he gets better, but he starts off as a douche.

Now to answer questions from chapters previous,

I would like to say I'm sorry to that one guy, whose name I forget, who kinda begged me not to get Naruto captured. My bad.

To Secret Weapon 06, there's a reason Naruto didn't do so, and that plays a part later on in the story. Also, he didn't get his lungs blown off, he got a lung hit by a low velocity round, and then crawled away, he didn't brush off a bullet like a boss. Furthermore, Sasuke did _knock out_ a bear with _several_ kicks, and did dodge sound waves that weren't going the speed of sound, while he was powered up with Orochimaru's Juin. But that is Sasuke Uchiha, the genius survivor of the Uchiha clan. Whereas this is Naruto, who runs into _walls_ a few _hundred_ times over the course of the Anime. Not exactly a creature of grace is he. Also, no, the Punisher is not the physical equivalent of a chunin, or an ANBU.

To Daniel 29, I might put those in later, but they are quite silly.

*1 Batman Begins quote.

Next chapter, we have daring escapes, child proofing, and a total copout! Interested? Stay tuned!

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to take a moment to thank our resident beta, 7 Winds. Read his stuff!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: ERROR 404! FILE: OWNERSHIP NOT FOUND.

"Resistance is futile."- Person Talking

'Processing human slaves.'- Person Thinking

[Bzzz]- Specific noises

_/Laser Cascade of Unending Darkness Technique/_- Techniques

:Line Break:- Line breaks

"Why…do you want to know?" Naruto gasped out, his dry mouth hindering his ability to speak.

A sneer crossed Doctor Schaeffer's face. "Amusing little termite, aren't you? I wish to know, and that is all you need concern yourself with. Now answer my question. What is Chakra?"

'It's not like they can use it anyway' Naruto thought, about to give out the answer when another thought interrupted. 'Wait, he said that this information is the only thing keeping me alive. So what would happen to me if I were to tell him?'

"No." , came a low growl from Naruto.

"No?" A dark chuckle permeated the room. "Are you sure that is the way you want to play this?"

A nod was the fat doctor's answer. The chuckle became a full booming laugh. "Very well, little cockroach, if that's what you wish." The doctor lowered his glasses to look at his companion. "Do you have it?"

"Before this…'Conversation' ever began." The other man spat.

"Oh good!" The fat man said with child-like glee, turning back to the prone hero. "So you see? Resistance around here is quite futile, and," the Doctor paused as he drew a remote from his pocket. "Punished!"

Pushing a button on the remote, Naruto's small form arched off the bed, jerking spasmodically as hundreds of volts of electricity were poured through his body. His screams were muffled from his jaw having clenched down too hard to let any sound out. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Naruto, his torture ended.

"Oh-oh, happy day!" The Doctor said, clapping his hands, mirth practically rolling from his obese form. "I don't get to do that so often anymore, so thank you for the opportunity. Now, here is how this is going to work. I am going to ask a question, you are going to answer it. If you don't answer it, we rip the information out of that useless hunk you call a brain, and then I electrocute you. Understand?"

"…Why?" Naruto spoke, after an extending period of dry rasps.

"Why? Oh I can tell you are going to be fun!" The Doctor said, getting up from his seat. "It's all because of that power inside of you. That chakra. It permeates your entire being, you positively radiate with that energy! And if I can find out how, and why, you are like that, I might be able to begin the process of making others just like you. I am sure you can imagine the advantage of a super-powered fighting force?" A dramatic sigh came from Schaeffer's lips. "But I am getting ahead of myself, first you are going to tell me, in your words, **exactly** how this 'chakra' works for you."

"Look, I'm not going to –HARRGHH!" Naruto screamed as electricity arced through his body once again. The doctor started laughing as Naruto twisted spasmodically in the aftermath of the electric current.

"Oh we ARE going to have fun."

:Line Break:

Two weeks. It had been two weeks as near as Naruto could tell. He didn't know for certain, he only counted the periods where he was awake as 'day' and his sleeping periods as 'nights'. It wasn't very accurate, but it was the best he could do considering there were no clocks or calendars to measure the passing of time in his cell

And that's exactly what it was. A cell.

He couldn't leave, he couldn't go outside, he couldn't stand up, and he couldn't even talk to any of the people who came into his room without receiving the shock treatment that demented doctor had put in his bed. All he could do was lay, chained up, in his bed and eat the crappy substance that they told him was a fat protein nutrient and water blend, providing everything that his body needed.

Naturally, it tasted like snot.

He didn't want to think about where his bowel movements were going. They were going somewhere, and since he wasn't allowed to move…

Naruto lay on the bed, with a full body steel cast placed over him, complete with support bars. Apparently this hospital had learned over the course of his stay exactly how strong Naruto's penchant for escape was.

First, he had substituted with one of the doctors. He had run out of the hallways, all the way up the stairs before being knocked out by that Gorgon, guy. The next thing Naruto remembered was waking up in the bed with device around his head. Apparently they found out pretty quickly how to detect when Naruto was gathering his chakra for a technique, and made a device that would not only detected when he was gathering energy, but activated the bed's electronics to jolt Naruto with a hard shock so that he lost his concentration, and his hold on his chakra.

The next time Naruto got out, it was by slipping one of his cuffs, breaking the needle in his arm, pulling it out, and using it as a lock pick, first on the other cuff, the on every door he came across, after transforming into one of the workers he had seen. Once again he was stopped by Gorgon, as he found out that he 'smelled like the kid'. After being knocked out and awakened in the same hospital bed again, Naruto's arms had been immobilized with restraints.

After that, Naruto broke out by bashing the device around his head into the steel restraints around his arms, thus allowing him to substitute with the air and escape his room, this time with steel restraints around his entire body, completely immobilizing him.

Each time he had come back from breaking out, he was met with three things. More restraints to prevent further breakout, Doctor Schaeffer, and that little remote he carried.

Naruto had lost track of the number of hours that he had spent under Doctor Schaeffer's special brand of 'Shock Therapy'. Every time he came back from a breakout, he got electrocuted. Every time he didn't answer a question, or withheld information, or lied about anything, he was electrocuted.

'I would insult their unoriginality if it wasn't so painful.' Naruto thought to himself, groaning with the phantom pain.

'All they want me to do is sit here and answer questions about chakra, and jutsu's.' Naruto thought to himself, 'But the way that doctor kept talking about it being 'the only reason I was still alive', I don't think anything that happens after I answer all their questions is going to be too pleasant for me.'

'So I need to keep trying to break out of here. But how? I can't really focus enough to cast a jutsu, every time I try to sneak out another way, even with jutsu, I get caught by Gorgon. And every time I try sneaking out and reveal more of what I can do, it means that they have that much less use for me and my secrets on chakra! So how do I do it?'

Just then, Mr. Shishido walked by the door, taking the time to sneer coldly at him, as if already knowing his thoughts of escape, and the futile outcome of such a course. Then the Gorgon moved on, leaving Naruto to continue to ponder his situation.

'I am going to make that bastard eat his own stupid smug grin!' Naruto thought vindictively, before he stopped thinking altogether.

Naruto blinked.

He had an idea.

Then Naruto smiled in a way that sent a shiver down the spines of every shop owner in Konoha.

:Line Break:

Elsewhere in the facility, there was a conversation discussing the specifics of Naruto's imprisonment.

In a dark room, the only light coming from a screen that took up the largest wall of the room. On the screen was a man, cloaked in darkness, sitting and speaking with the resident Doctor Schaeffer.

"How is your operation proceeding, Herr Doctor?" floated the distorted, mysterious voice of the shrouded man on the screen.

"Better than can be expected." Schaeffer said, fixing his eyewear before continuing his report. "It is the first time I have come across a being whose power is of this magnitude, and as such, there are precautions that must be taken to ensure the continuity of the experiment, and the safety of the staff."

"And these precautions hinder your experiments?"

"Yes, they slow us down, and block off certain experiments I could perform, but they also ensure that the subject stays within the confines of the facility, and thus allow me to conduct all other experiments. Restrictive, yes, but also necessary."

"Do not belie me with your excuses, Doctor. I ask for results, and I expect to see them." The mystery man said in clipped tones. "You may be a genius in the field of bioengineering, and an expert in the matters of cloning and DNA analysis, but even you are not irreplaceable to us."

Schaeffer bowed his head ashamedly. "I understand."

"Now tell me about the specifics of this child's power."

"It is like nothing I have ever witnessed. The power by itself is some form of bioelectricity, but confounds all of my efforts to harness or store. You see, even bioelectricity retains some traits no different than all other forms of electricity. Color, pitch, wavelength, all are very similar. But in this boy they become so very different. The energy can become tangible when in large quantities, and can even be stable outside of the body for limited amounts of time. The energy itself also possesses elastic qualities, that is when it is drawn far enough outside of the host body, it either 'breaks' dissolving into naught but air, or it 'snaps returning to the host body."

"This is all very interesting to us doctor, but what have you learned that makes him of use to us?"

Taking in a great gulp, the doctor continued shakily. "Well, I have learned that if I were to convert all of the energy in the child's body into say, electricity, than I could use that power to keep New York City lit for a period of a bit over two hours. I also believe that this energy level will increase with age. Also, the key to the child's utilization of the energy inside of him seems to stem from three things. The first is the visualization of the affect intended, the second is the willpower required to 'move' the energy, and the third seems to be the precise control over that 'movement' of power as needed for a 'technique'. Furthermore, I have found that the child's former residence is still locked variably in the age of iron. And as the situation he described coming from is found nowhere on earth at the present or anytime in our recorded history, I am left with one of two possibilities. The first, being that he came from another planet utilizing a crude Einstein-Rosen bridge, or wormhole, OR he travelled from an alternate reality, but the second option being far less likely." The doctor stopped to catch his breath, dabbing at his sweaty brow with a napkin.

"If he comes from such a crude society, how can they manage and Einstein-Rosen bridge when we ourselves have not mastered it?" , came the incessant voice over the speakers.

"It stems from their manipulation of the energy that the majority of their society seems to boast." The doctor responded immediately.

"If it can be used for something as advanced as the manipulation of time and space, what else can this power be used for?"

The Doctor seemed to brighten some at that question. "Well sir, sifting through the subjects memories, we have found two hundred and ninety seven individual uses." Waiting for that information to sink in, the doctor got his nod when the figure in black said, "Go on."

"Searching through the boys earlier memories, we have found mention of figures who could stop time completely, travel continents in the blink of an eye, breathe fire, blast lighting, cast illusions, turn invisible, talk to animals, see in all directions at once, enhance reflexes, strength, and speed, raise mountains, summon tsunami's, extend life, heal the injured, grant photographic reflexes, and," the doctor paused dramatically, hiding a triumphant smirk on his face, "summon the grim reaper, or their approximation of him."

"The Grim Reaper?"

"Their version of him, sir, called the Shinigami. His society was apparently rife with demons and all manner of supernatural creations." Holding up a hand boldly to forestall any questions by the enshrouded man, the doctor continued. "All of this only reinforces my theory that he is in fact, from another world. And following up on that theory, I reviewed his DNA again."

"What do you mean by 'again', Schaeffer?"

"You see, sir, in my initial investigation into his blood, I looked for the thirteen markers that generally distinguish the identity of a person. While often done with criminals, this is what is done as standard practice of investigating a person of interest, and so that we would have it on file in the future. The devil is in the details, after all. So as I was saying, during that investigation, I found none of the markers. Not a single one was coded the same way as you or I. Going from there, it seemed the entire string of DNA was encoded in such a way as to appear human, but at the same time be something so radically different that it could never be categorized as such."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, all human DNA is in a double helix formation so as to hold the maximum amount of information in the tightest possible are, and his is the same way. All human cells reproduce by splitting that DNA and duplicating it and his does that too. But all human DNA contain Cytosine, Thymine, Adenine, and Guanine, and his does not."

A silence fell over the dark room as the man enshrouded pondered that fact.

"How is that possible?" , came the response at length.

"I would ordinarily blame it on a mutation of some sort, but based on his backstory it seems natural where he comes from. Aside from blaming his Alien parentage for the present situation, all I can say is 'I don't know sir', but it is one of the things I am trying to find out."

Another, shorter silence followed, broken once again by the man on the screen.

"Getting back to the original point of our discussion, how soon can we see combat application out of this project?"

This was responded to by a headshake from the good doctor. "Not for quite some time, unfortunately. The nature of my experiments trying to quantify the energy that the boy, the alien has available requires that he remains fully cognizant, and aware of his past. While I have begun the first stages of mental manipulation, specifically switching his native language to a more civilized tongue, any further steps of brainwashing could begin to harm his memories, which for the purposes of my experimentation must remain intact for the near future. This need eliminates the option of brute brainwashing the child into a weapon. On the other side, direct cloning of the subject, will also take some time, not to integrate but simply to grow up and be trained in the ways of combat. While I have already given the go ahead for the cloning project, I do not know the sequencing of this creature's DNA to the point where I can increase growth. It will take years at present to make a clone combat ready, and it will take weeks at least before I have drained the subject of all pertinent information to the point where I feel comfortable letting him be made fully into a war machine."

The figure on screen gave a solitary nod.

"You are often held in high regard, by myself and by the rest of the advisors to the baron, both for your professionalism and your constant work for the good of this… 'Company'. Such is our respect that we even granted your request for Agent Gorgon for an extended period, in which to utilize him to detain and interrogate the subject. However, some of us feel that, while the end result may be worth the wait, it might take too long to get there." The doctor felt the cold chill of fear crawling down his spine.

"Now," continued the distorted voice, "If you hold that you are working as fast as you can and that there is nothing you do that can expedite results, then you may be looking at shelving this project in a months' time. And if all that time is wasted, then you most assuredly won't be held in as high regard by the council as you are now." The voice paused menacingly.

"We shall redouble our efforts." The doctor choked out nervously. "I shall begin mapping his genome immediately to facilitate accelerating a clone's growth."

"See to it that you do. I expect to hear more results from you at your next check in. Hail HYDRA!"

"HAIL HYDRA." The doctor cried throwing his arms into the air in salute. The screen went blank, leaving the doctor alone, in the cold, dark room.

:Line Break:

Naruto is lying on his bed, eyes closed with his brows drawn together in a frown as he mentally prepares himself for the trial to come.

Naruto got as comfortable as he could, thinking to himself 'Oh yeah, this is gonna hurt!'

Then Naruto began molding his power.

The device on his forehead began beeping, and the bed came alive as low level voltage began to coarse through it.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto kept molding. He continued focusing on his technique, dreading the moment when-'ZGRRMMPH!'

The device on Naruto's forehead began beeping faster, and the current going through Naruto's bed increased dramatically, forcing Naruto to arch his back. But still Naruto kept focusing on his chakra.

With the chakra building inside of him, smoke began pouring seemingly out of his pores, filling the room with a nearly impenetrable grey fog.

The device on Naruto's head started giving off a loud monotone screech as the bed electrified still further, sending what felt like bolts of lightning through Naruto. Holding back screams of agony, Naruto still focused. And when it came to be too much, when the power of electricity was finally too painful to bear, Naruto cast his technique, calling out its name.

:Line Break:

"Agent GORGON!" , came the call over his radio.

"What is it?" Spoke the dark haired man in an unconcealed snarl.

"Sir, the cameras in patients 047's room are showing nothing but smoke! I have already dispatched the security team, but protocol dictates-"

"I know!" The man snapped, shutting the airheaded radio-operator up. "Have security lock the doors to the stairwells, and shutdown the elevators. Let the team know I am on the way!"

Getting an affirmative, Shishido strode towards the detainment wing of the underground complex.

Reaching a door guarded by a pair of uniformed soldiers, the agent hurried inside, and intent on finding out what had happened to the nuisance as quickly as possible.

Inside the room were three more men, two grunts and an officer, and a man in a dirtied blue uniform, stained with bleach and the like, detained on the bed.

"Sir," Greeted the officer, "Glad you're here. I don't know what to make of this. Five minutes ago, the subject was electrocuted in increasing orders of magnitude, in response to him gathering his energy. It's a very simple setup, and all part of the countermeasures to contain the specimen. Here though," Said the officer, gesturing to the restrained janitor, "Is where it gets tricky. The subject began issuing smoke which blotted out all of the cameras visual on all spectrums, Infrared included. When the smoke was cleared, we found this man here in place of the subject. After we removed most of the restraints, he told us his name is Mr. Julio Rodriguez, and that he is a janitor here. He's in our computer database, and he is working today. Now according to Mr. Rodriguez, he was working on the other side of the facility before he woke up here, which too fits in with his schedule. He remembers none of his safety questions and normally this would be a lot more suspicious, but with the levels of electricity that were running through the countermeasures at the time of the 'Replacement', memory loss is not unheard of."

Taking a moment to wipe at a sweaty brow, the uniformed man waited for his superiors' response.

The pause turned long as Gorgon took in the whole scene. The subjects bed, the men and their guns. At last, after a great silence, he spoke. "So all you have done is sealed off this room? Detained this man?"

"Yes sir…"

"Pathetic." , came the growl from Shishido, echoing in cold finality. His words were followed by a quiet whistling. A short gurgle came from the officer.

Hands went to his neck to try to stem the blood from its spurting. Looking with pleading eyes at the Gorgon, he found only a cold smile. "HYDRA is no place for incompetence." Quickly wiping his hidden blade off on the dying man, Gorgon turned away, bringing a radio to his ear. "Control, this is agent codename Gorgon authorizing a full lockdown of the facility."

"Acknowledged, Agent Gorgon."

"I also need sweeper teams scouting the facility, top to bottom. If he makes it to the ground floor of the facility above, it will be on your head."

"A-acknowledged, Agent Gorgon."

"I want triple security on the elevators, and no-one goes up. I mean, NO-ONE. This kid can look like anyone, so that means that no one can be trusted."

"Acknowledged, Agent Gorgon"

"Agent Gorgon out."

Turning back to the once cream colored room, now colored with streaks of red, the Gorgon was approached by one of the remaining men in the room.

"You believe that the subject is still somewhere in the facility, sir?"

"No," the Gorgon said, turning to the man laying very still on the bed, "I believe he never left."

Moving forward, Tomi Shishido sat beside the man called Rodriquez, and taking the 'helmet' that was the chakra detector off of the man's noggin, he placed his hands on either side of his head.

"Three problems with your story. One, the shock would cause short term memory loss, only later developing in long term. Two, you have never made a jump that far, and you always have needed to see what you are replacing with, or where you intend to go, and you can't have advanced that far, while stuck in your cell. And three and this is where you really messed up. You expected me to fall for it."

With a terrible grin, Tomi looked through his shaded glasses, and straight into man's eyes.

"The more you resist," Tomi said to the man's fearful gaze, "The greater the damage will be."

He was stopped as a shout came from outside the room.

"Control! We have eyes on target! He is in the detainment wing on level 4!"

Standing up so fast he knocked over his chair, Shishido rushed into the hallway, only seeing the backs of the two door guards as they rounded a corner.

Hearing gunshots, the agent cursed under his breath as he ran in pursuit of the fools firing. "Alive! We need him alive!"

:Line Break:

Naruto ran swiftly through the corridors, trying to remember the way to the stairs he had used to almost escape in one of his previous attempts.

'It was two, no three hallways down, then left. Then another two and a right.' , thought Naruto, counting as he ran, his barefoot feet slapping against the cool tile.

Making his left, Naruto found himself on the wrong end of a gun.

"Detain the subject!" , shouted one of the men, raising a rifle.

Looking at the three men in front of him, Naruto focused on the man in the middle as his rifle came to bear. Replacing with him, he saw first-hand what these guns could do.

A series of explosive [BANG]'s echoed in the corridor, as the ruined giblets of the former trooper fell to the ground.

"What the-?" Exclaimed one of those remaining, before Naruto pilfered his knife and jammed it into his thigh. Focusing energy to his legs and arms, Naruto leaped at the uninjured man, and with super human strength, broke his frail neck.

[Thud] The stabbed man, threw himself against the wall, and tried to bring his rifle to bear again. Picking the gun off the ground, Naruto pointed it in the stabbed troopers' direction, before pulling the trigger.

Another series of [BANG]'s echoed. The corridor growing again silent as the now very dead trooper slid down the wall, trying to hold together what was left of his insides.

Feeling like he was about to throw up, Naruto thought to himself amusedly, 'Oh, sure, their guns work, but why doesn't the one I have at home?' before vacating the contents of his stomach all over the gory scene.

Bracing himself on the wall with a shaky arm, Naruto wiped the vomit from his face with his hospital robe.

'Ok', he thought to himself. 'I can deal with this later, but right now I have to focus now. Any second, that asshole with the glasses is going to run around a corner and ruin my day. I have to keep moving if I want to make it out of here alive.'

He shook his head, and got off the wall. Looting the knives he had seen on the men and sticking them through his hospital robe, he picked up the unfired rifle and turned back down the corridor. 'Second right.' Naruto thought to himself, taking off once more down the corridor.

:Line Break:

'How can these morons not even catch a simple child?' Gorgon thought to himself as he continued racing down hallways. Having already caught up with the morons who had been shooting at the boy, he quickly told them to go and guard something before their brains melted. He announced a moment later over the radio that lethal force was not to be used.

From that moment he had been tracking the child personally. The little hellion continued to evade him, making it down every corridor just a moment after Gorgon caught a glimpse of him.

'I know he has super-speed, but staying just ahead of me like this…' An idea hit the Gorgon with the force of a freight train. Connecting observations back to his original theory, Tomi Shishido had a startling realization. Putting on a burst of speed, he thought 'Now I just have to confirm it.'

Rounding the corner a little earlier, he saw the subject, this Naruto Uzumaki, running silently over the floor. Running without any noise at all, actually. And he didn't have a shadow.

Screaming a curse, he pulled out his radio. "Control! This is Gorgon, I need a sit-rep of the subjects room in the detainment wing, are the men still standing guard over Rodriguez."

Waiting for a second, the prompt reply followed. "Yes Agent Gorgon. All men assigned to that room are still in their positions."

"Do they have shadows?"

Another pause, this one longer.

"N-No, Agent Gorgon."

"Send every man to the stairs and elevators, now! That boy does not leave this floor!"

Ignoring the standard "Acknowledged, Agent Gorgon.", he kept running down the corridor, but with a new destination in mind.

'He would go to the exit he knows is there before blindly wandering the facility. He is going to take emergency stair three to the surface.'

:Line Break:

Naruto stood amongst the dead men, transformed into one of them pre-slaughter, and holding a looted gun. The reason that Naruto was standing still and not running towards an exit was because he was staring at an exit, or more specifically, the bullet ridden, ten inch steel plate covering the exit. Having stood staring at the door for thirty seconds after unloading a full clip of one of the other guns lying around into it, he could come only to one conclusion.

'I am so screwed.' Naruto thought to himself with a nod. 'I am not going through that door.'

Slapping himself, he rethought the situation. 'Snap out of it! My freedom is on the other side of this door! I am not going to be held back by some stupid metal!' Denting the metal with a chakra enhanced punch; Naruto rubbed his now sore hand in frustration. 'But how do I get past it?'

He shook his head. 'I have gotten past it before, but that was when there wasn't a giant wall in the way!'

He looked around for anything that might help him or give him an idea when his eyes lay upon another metal plate, but this one looked like it had a split down the middle.

'Huh.' Naruto thought, walking over to the door. Forcing the two parts to slide open, he was greeted with a small room inside. Taking a step inside, the room shook slightly upon his first step. 'Well that's not encouraging' Naruto thought grimly.

Looking around some more, he saw that the ceiling had tiny holes in it. Jumping up and pushing against the ceiling revealed a long vertical tunnel visible through the now open roof of the room.

Pulling himself up through the hole, Naruto began gathering chakra in his legs. 'Now here's my way up!'

:Line Break:

"Agent Gorgon! Teams 3, 14, and 9 haven't reported in, and team 9 was guarding emergency stairwell 3, and elevators 5 and 6."

"I am already there, Control." Came the Japanese man's terse reply. "They're dead."

Stepping through the open elevator doors, he looked up the shaft and saw light coming through another open pair of elevator doors.

"And the subject is in the open."

:Line Break:

Doctor Schaeffer stood in a remarkably empty, and dark, room for the second time in as many weeks. He was speaking with who he assumed was the same man as last time, but it was hard to tell with the voice distorted as it was.

The anger however, translated quite clearly.

"You have failed us, Herr Doctor." Came a menacing growl over the speakers.

"In my defense, I am in charge of the science, not the containment of the s-"

"WRONG!" Interrupted the voice. "It was entirely your responsibility. You were in charge of the project in its entirety! We provided you with the resources to conduct your research and the security to protect your staff and to protect the secrecy of your facility! Now that the subject has escaped the facility is compromised. I am being told that SHIELD already has the location of the base! This experiment is a failure!"

"I have done my job to the best of my ability! And while I might not have been able to keep the boy, I have weeks of testing, urine samples, fecal smears, blood tests, tissue samples! I have extensive notes as to the structure of the alien culture and the way it seems to work! I have gone into copious amounts of details describing this power they use, this Chakra! I need only Time now in order to find the right set of DNA to alter to accelerate growth. The boy might have escaped, and we might lose this facility, but this experiment is still far from a failure!"

"Your research is the only thing keeping your head on your shoulders! I spoke not of the experiment on the boy, but as to whether or not you were ready for a leadership position in our organization. The results of THAT experiment were a resounding failure!"

"Sir, I-"

"Not, Another, Word, Doctor!" Interrupted the voice on the speakers. "You are going to sterilize your facility. Kill anyone who has extensive knowledge of your project, and destroy any research that can't be transported. You are coming home, where you will be placed back under Doctor Sutter. That is all. Hail HYDRA." Spat the voice on the speakers before fading out.

"Hail HYDRA." , said the Doctor, halfheartedly, before walking out of the room.

Striding towards his lab, he was thinking furiously. 'How dare they do this to me? I am the foremost mind in my field, and they are putting me under that quack? This embarrassment is beyond intolerable.'

Sliding his key card to open a door, the doctor strode towards a cooler. Opening it, he saw what he was looking for. 'They will rue the day that they crossed me. But none more than that little blond shit.'

Lifting a vial of a red liquid, the Doctor smiled deviously. "Oh yes. You are going to cry 'mercy' through blood soaked screams when I am done with you."

:Line Break:

It was a very tired Naruto that stumbled through the sewers later that night. He had spent all day trying to find his way back to this place. The bastards that had captured him had set up their base all the way across the city, and he had gotten lost several times trying to find familiar ground.

'I'm lucky that they stayed in the same city.' thought Naruto with a grunt, opening one of the metal doors to his 'home'.

Closing the door behind him, Naruto staggered around, trying to find his way in the darkened room.

Eventually making his way over to his bed, he silently swore to himself that he would take stock of everything tomorrow, but right now he was too tired to care.

Collapsing into his bed, Naruto thought he would fall asleep immediately.

But then his sheets screamed.

Jumping out of his bed, Naruto scrambled back until he felt the edge of his desk. Reaching into one of the drawers where he kept a flashlight, he turned back on the bed, ready to face the ghost or zombie or whatever horror it was that was in his bed.

What he saw was a very frightened looking little girl, and then two or three other kids behind her.

He was lost for words, and she took advantage of that opportunity.

"What are you doing in my bed!" She screamed at him.

"What the hell?" Naruto muttered, bad month taking a turn for the worse.

**AN**

And that's another chapter done, and also that should be the last one for a while, as I concentrate on other ventures.

OK! Now onto something that's been ticking me off something awful

Many of the people that reviewed this story, in particular last chapter, have an inflated idea of Naruto's skill level. Naruto is not nearly as strong as he is later on in the series. This is a Naruto snatched out of his reality before he learned Kage Bunshin. That depowers Naruto A LOT.

Naruto is decent at hand-to-hand. He is faster and stronger than normal humans, and has access to a few techniques, with which he is getting better the more he practices with them.

When fighting an opponent like Spider-Man, he was always going to lose the first round. Spider-Man is just too strong, too fast, and too smart for just about anything Naruto could pull at the beginning of the series.

Something Else anyone might notice about last chapter is that it is set up pretty much exactly like Iruka catching Naruto in chapter 1 of the manga. Naruto doing something reprehensible, getting away with it, getting caught by Iruka/Spiderman after pulling what would have otherwise been a pretty slick maneuver, facing a punishment for his actions.

I will admit that I could have written it better, and that I am not yet a Stephen King good author, I doubt that I could have written it better at the skill level I am presently at.

If anyone has any other questions about last chapter, or how Naruto would fair against marvel characters, please first see "No Reading's 'Special Chapter's. It's by Meinos Kaen, and it is a damn good story, and gave me inspiration to write this. In the Special Chapters, however, he goes into extensive arguments about how Naruto would fair with skill level post time-skip against marvel characters. Read it.

Point the second, a great many of you have been making a fuss over the Kyuubi. You keep saying that I have forgotten him, or that he should be appearing. One person going as far as to say that I don't know what I am doing.

I assure all of you now, that I am quite sick and tired of your incessant bitching. So now I'm going to explain something. Listen up Kiddies.

The Kyuubi should have appeared the first time Naruto was struck with mortal danger, or truly intense anger.

Those parts have come and passed several times, but none more memorably than Naruto getting shot by Punisher.

There are reasons why I am writing this story the way that I am, and I assure all of you, that it is according to my master plan.

I call it the Plot.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, Read and Review please, and as always, big thanks to resident beta 7 Winds.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (it is owned by Masashi Kishimoto), or Marvel (IT is owned by Stan Lee… or Disney… someone who isn't me anyway). So please don't sue me… Please?

"It looks like the children had a fishcake…"- Person Talking

'And ate it, too.'- Person Thinking

[YYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHhhhhhhh]- Specific noises

_/Awesome Music Technique/_- Techniques

:Line Break:- Line breaks

"What are you doing here?", shouted the high pitched voice of one of the kids.

"He's here to take us away…", whispered another fearfully.

"We haveta fight him!", shouted one brown skinned child.

"YEAH!" shouted the first one, "We're not gonna let you take us away, we'll fight you first!"

"What- No, I'm not here to take any of you away." Naruto spoke belatedly, attempting to admonish the children's unruliness.

"He's lying! He's gonna take us away, and he's gonna do awful things to us!"

"N-"

"He'll take us away and experiment on us in a lab somewhere!"

"St-"

"He's going to make us join the circus where other kids will laugh at us and throw food at us!"

"STOP IT! STOP SHOUTING!", screamed Naruto hypocritically.

When the children's terrified shouts, screams and wails had died off, Naruto tried to make sense of things.

"What the hel…heck are all of you doing in my bed?"

"Your bed?" , one of the boys answered, "This is our bed!"

Naruto clenched his fists in exasperation.

"NO this is MY bed!" he shouted back.

"WE FOUND IT FIRST, AND FINDERS-KEEPERS!" Shouted one of the boys again.

Stopping himself before he could shout 'Nuh-uh!' Naruto came to a painful realization. 'I am having a shouting contest with a group of nine-year olds…' he thought, rubbing a bit of maturity into his forehead.

He looked back up at the children with red, swollen, tired eyes.

"I am too tired for this. I am going to sleep. If you want to stick around, whatever, there should sheets in the bureau over there. If you don't stick around, also whatever, but right now, I am sleeping in my own damn bed." having said that, he collapsed back onto his sheets, pulling them around him despite the initial dampness.

"H-HEY!" shouted one of the boys again as Naruto pulled himself deeper into the covers.

'I'll deal with them in the morning.' Naruto thought, the whispers of the kids talking amongst themselves lulling him to sleep.

:Line Break:

Naruto woke with a groan, to the feel of grimy sheets and a weight on his chest. His eyes snapped open to observe the foreign weight in the form of a pink haired child lying on his chest.

'WHO THE HELL IS…Oh yeah,' Naruto thought, remembering that he still had kids in his hideout and that he hadn't been transported back home where a scantily clad Sakura gave him fruity drinks and Ramen, like his dream had told him, 'I still have to figure out what to do with these kids.'

Slowing trying to roll the girl off of him, Naruto's hand brushed up against another foreign object, that felt almost like the wood the bed was made of. 'But there isn't supposed to be anything there…' Naruto thought looking over at what his hand lay on.

Looking at it, it had the same brown, woodish coloring of the furniture, but seemed a lot smoother. The truly odd thing about it, however, wasn't the color, or the texture, but its nature, and it's location, coming out of the little girls back.

Scooting back off the bed, Naruto got a better look at the little pink-haired girl. There were similar growths of that brownish stuff all over her body. Her arms showed little spikes of it, her legs showed dull plates of it, and one side of her face was formed larger than the other. Getting the flashlight out of his desk drawer, Naruto looked at her companions, whom he found in a somewhat similar state. One looked as if he was a giant boulder, with appropriate human appendages and two sets of eyes, and the other he had originally confused for a giant dog, given the hair, claws and jaws, but now he could see that it was a boy, if for no other reason than size and shape.

'And I thought some of the clan techniques at home were crazy…' Naruto thought before shivering in slight disgust at a memory. 'Shino's still crazy though. Or at least creepy, with those bugs of his.'

Looking back at the girl of the group, Naruto saw vivid green eyes staring back up at him.

"Morning." Naruto said, nodding his head and speaking at a mostly reasonable tone.

The girls eyes bugged out and she burrowed deeper into the blankets, covering her head.

Naruto frowned at that, and moved closer to the bed.

"Hey, you don't have to worry, I'm not going to hurt you." He said, trying to placate the young girl. Her response was mumbled into the sheets.

"What?"

She took her head out of the sheets, her eyes clenched into a frown, and she said in a soft, nervous voice, "You don't have any clothes on.", before ducking her head beneath the sheets again.

Looking down, Naruto saw a sight that would scar any nine year old girl, and let off an embarrassed yelp, before making a bee-line for his dresser.

The two boys also in his bed jumped up at his scream and started scrambling about.

"What's wrong! Sarah, why were you screaming?"

'Damnit!' Naruto thought as he hastily pulled on a pair of underpants.

"I didn't scream, it was him!" Came the voice from under the covers, an arm poking out from the sheets in Naruto's scantily clad direction.

The four eyed rock kid and the dog-boy looked at him. "Then what were you screaming for?" Rock-boy asked.

Getting grew red as a cherry. "That's not important. Now just shut up, I just woke up and I don't want anymore shouting!" he shouted unnecessarily.

Quieting down, Naruto got out a few of what he thought were ration bars he had picked up at a store before his capture, passing those around, he had the three kids sit on the bed.

"Ok, we're gonna take this from the top." Naruto stared hard at the kids.

"First, who are you, starting with you mutt." Naruto said, pointing at the far left child.

The kid gave a growl, an actual growl surprisingly. "My NAME is Nick." He said in a whiny voice, offsetting the slightly intimidating growl.

Naruto nodded and then pointed at the middle figure. "And you?"

Still wrapped in the covers, the pink haired girl answered in a timid voice. "My name is Sarah."

"Ok," Naruto said nodding again before pointing at the final child. "And what's your name?"

The four eyed rock kid jumped up on the bed and started shouting at the top of his lungs, "I AM THE MIGHTY ONYXX, RULER OF THE WORLD AN-" before being knocked back down by Naruto.

"What did I just say about yelling?"

Four eyes glanced down ashamedly. "Sorry."

Naruto rubbed his head in frustration. "It's fine. But what did you say your name was?'

"THE M-" he started shouting before quieting due to a leer from Naruto. "My name is Onyxx."

"No it isn't."

"Shut up, Nick! It is too!"

"Your name is Sidney!"

"NO! It's ONYXX!"

"You're just mad cuz it's a girls name!"

"NO!"

"YEAH!"

"NUH-UH!"

"YUH-UH!"

"SHOUTING!" The children ceased their argument and turned to stare at the blond teen, and the bulging vein pulsing on his forehead.

"How is his forehead doing that?" Whispered Nick to Sarah, who could only shake her head in disbelief. Naruto took a few breaths to calm himself, and to make sure he didn't break his own no shouting rule.

"Now, I want you to tell me your name. Not a nickname, or some moniker, or even an anagram or whatever else. I just want your name."

Onyxx stared down at his feet for moment.

"Well?"

"…It's Sidney." The child said in a small voice.

"See how easy that was?" Naruto said before shaking his head, trying to beat down the oncoming headache. "Now, onto my next question."

"Wait," Interrupted the small girl of the group. "You haven't told us your name!"

A round of agreements later Naruto held up his hands. "Fine, fine, my name is Naruto. But now back to my questions." Looking over the group, he gave a nod when none of the kids interrupted him.

"Now, what are all of you doing down here? Don't all of you have families who'll miss you?"

Naruto only needed about a half a second to know that he fucked up with that line, as all of the now quiet children seemed to withdraw and grow sullen.

"What happened?" Naruto said looking at the kids. Unsurprisingly, it was Sidney who spoke up first.

"I'm an orphan, I never knew my parents. Ever since I was little, I've been shipped around from foster home to foster home, with no one ever wanting to keep me around."

Then Nick spoke up. "I knew my parents, but they died recently. And with how I look, there weren't too many people who wanted to take me in, and some people who were a lot less nice than that."

Naruto's eyes fell on Sarah in the silence that followed, but her eyes seemed entirely content with the blanket her hands were wrapped in. After another moment of silence, she said in a whisper, "I don't want to talk about it."

Naruto nodded his head, his own eyes now staring into his lap.

'Crap,' Naruto thought, 'I can't send them away if they have no place to go, but can I let them stay here?'

Thoughts raced in Naruto's head as he tried to figure out what to do.

Looking at the kid's faces though, his mind was made up.

'When I was their age, I at least had someplace to call home. I might be able to keep a home that well, but at least I can give them somewhere to sleep.'

"All right," Naruto said loudly, overcompensating to break the gloom that had settled over the troupe, "I decided that you all can stay here with me. But we are all going to have to share a bed for a few days until I can get you guys some of your own. From there…" Naruto paused as he struggled to find an idea. Finding none he continued. "I don't know, I'm kinda new at this, but we'll do something, ok?"

There was no response from the children for a second or two, before Nick spoke up, with the most pertinent and basic question he could think of.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why help us? You don't have to, and yesterday you didn't want to, so why?"

With a sigh, Naruto looked at the wolf-boy with eyes that had no place on a twelve-year old. "Because I know what it's like, to be how you guys are, and I won't have anyone else endure what I had to, not when I can help it."

"In the meantime, though," Naruto said in a chipper voice as he jumped to his feet, "Who wants lunch?"

:Line Break:

A week had passed since Naruto had taken the children in, and more than a few problems arose.

The first had been when Naruto tried to take them all out for lunch, only to be blocked out of the restaurant, even when he had money to pay. Originally he had thought that they were just trying not to serve him, but he had been there in the past with no hassle. Then he realized after a great many leers and glances towards the kids from the owner and the other customers, that it wasn't him that the owners were trying to keep out, but the children with him. At first it was demoralizing to see that the kids were going through life so similar to what he had endured in Konoha. But then when he thought about it, even he had people in Konoha who could help put a smile on his face. The Old Man, Teuchi and Ayame… and Iruka. All of them helped him when he needed them, and if he was going to help these kids, then he was going to have to be there for them!

Naruto escorted the kids back to the chamber, and then he went back up, stole the food he had wanted to buy, and left before the police ever even knew he was there, giving the kids the meal he had promised them, and punishing the man who stood in the way.

The second major problem that put a damper over all of them wasn't making sure the kids had furniture or things to do. That was easy. He could always go exploring with them whenever they got bored and with the stash of money he had saved up before he fought Spider-Man, he could easily afford small beds for each of them, and a small library of children's books for their comfortable rest and relaxation. Most of that money was burned up when he had to go and get new sheets, clothes, and equipment for lighting and maintaining their chamber, but the rest was still enough to cover luxury expenses.

No, the second main problem came one day after Naruto had broken another ATM when he had started getting low on cash. He stood on a rooftop, overlooking all of his pursuers when he saw a great white-blue light in the distance. Hopping over the building tops he finally saw the statue of the green lady standing on an island throwing off the white light out of her torch. 'Is this normal?' Naruto thought, observing the strange phenomenon. 'I haven't seen this before now, but is it like a celebration that comes once a year or something?' Taking a second to look down at the responses people were giving, mostly in the form of worried screams and scurrying Naruto drew the conclusion that it wasn't normal, and that he should take that opportunity to flee with his stolen goods.

The next day, when Naruto came to the surface, he was greeted with armed police on every corner. He stopped in front of a tv that was displaying the green lady and the white light and was actually speaking words he could understand, which seemed to be happening more and more.

Another day past and Naruto came to the surface again, intent on getting toiletries as his had all been used up in a massive toilet paper throwing contest. It was epic, but all the paper had gotten soggy, so here he was on a resupply run.

One of the first things he saw were men in black armor with guns on nearly every corner. Asking a passerby what they were doing there, she responded that they were there because of the Liberty Island incident, involving the damn muties.

'Well that means no runs to the ATM for awhile then.' Naruto thought, scampering around an armed patrol on his way back home.

A few days after that, yet another problem came to their attention.

He had been training his knife throwing with a wooden post as a target. Things had been going rather smoothly as Naruto re-accustomed himself with the different weights of each of his knives. Sarah had rushed in front of him as he was about to throw, with Nick chasing her in a high speed game of tag. After yelling at both of them for their recklessness, Naruto realized that even if the kids were to be better about their safety when it came to his training time and his knives, there would still be accidents and close calls, wont as kids were to forget things in their desire for entertainment.

So, reluctantly, Naruto began keeping his training regimen in the abandoned water treatment facility that he generally just used to get to street level.

'The only bonus is the extra space' Naruto had thought optimistically.

It was only a day after that episode before yet another problem had reared its head, this one caused by Naruto himself.

He had been going over his fight with the alleged Spider-Man, trying to find where he had gone wrong and what he could do better. Eventually his mind wandered back to the oddity that had happened after his fight had finished, at least it had to him, and right before he landed on the police car.

He remembered sticking to the wall by only his hand. He remembered channeling chakra through it at the time, and then once he had stopped he fell towards his impending injury.

So he had spent several fruitless hours trying to recreate the effect by trying to copy the amount of chakra he had in his arm at the time, and then doing a one armed pullup, thus signifying that his arm was in fact stuck to the wall. All of his tries were met with failure as his none-adhesive arm sliding down rough concrete.

After a few hours of that, Naruto grew so frustrated with his lack of progress that he pumped his arm full of chakra and slapped it against the concrete again.

The ensuing explosion launched him backwards twenty feet and straight into another wall.

Picking himself out of the Naruto shaped indentation he had made; he saw the crater in the concrete where he had slapped his arm. It was about 4 inches deep and 5 inches wide.

Staring into that whole, two thoughts competed for attention in Naruto's mind. The first was 'Ok, maybe a little less chakra next time.' And the second was 'If that was a slap, what could I have done with a punch?' As he made to stand, however, sharp pain emanating from his arm blotted out both of those.

He looked back down at his wrist and saw it was bruised already, and starting to swell. Holding his now broken wrist against his chest, he promised himself to try both punching with chakra, and to resume his climbing exercises.

Making his way downstairs, back to his home-base, Naruto smiled through his pain as he saw Sarah bouncing happily on her bed.

He didn't yet realize that the real problems for him and the children were just beginning.

_AN_

I know, I know, short chapter.

Even so, I needed to get a move on on my updates, so I shortened this chapter to get it out faster.

Let me know what you think or how much you missed me in a review!


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